It seems that police in Georgia believe in combating crime from the youngest age: Girl Scouts fear they're destined for a day behind bars, after a police officer stops strip mall cookie sales as the city claims "misunderstanding".
The Girl Scout troop had set up shop at a Villa Rica strip mall, about thirty miles from the main city of Atlanta, when a police officer stopped by to ask whether the girls had a peddler's permit. No peddler permit in hand, the Girl Scouts were asked to shut up shop though the problem still remains mysterious. The media says the officer claimed that the girls were too close to the street, and needed a permit in order to operate -- though it's not quite clear how proximity to a street is so closely intertwined with a permit.
The larger problem seemed to arise over communication from the police officer, which both the Girl Scout troop leader and mother Leigh Ann Singleton insinuate to have been more than a bit lacking and brisk. The approach and interaction scared the young girls, who became afraid at the prospect of being carted off to jail -- or having their mothers put behind bars.
Fox News tells the story best by video.
When the story hit the press, a (most likely embarrassed) city police chief and mayor talked with press and claimed that the incident was a misunderstanding – though the exact “misunderstanding” remains unclear.
To the children: just wait until you become adults.