A 10-year-old Iowa girl is looking for a different way to continue toward her dream of owning a bakery after her mother said neighbors called police multiple times to report that she was selling cookies at the end of their street.
According to the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier, Savannah Watters had set up her wagon on a nearby corner to peddle her baked goods.
“Every day for a couple hours I would bring my wagon and go down to the end of the street and sell stuff,” the youngster said.
A blooming entrepreneur, she told reporters that she “wanted to have a cookie shop with (her) mom,” describing it as one of her dreams.
She said she had already sold about $250 worth of merchandise, which is earmarked for a new wardrobe for the upcoming school year.
“I just wish that I could’ve just kept staying there,” she added.
Kara Watters, Savannah’s mother, said the fledgling mobile shop was starting to expand, with her daughter making business cards and offering order forms to repeat customers. Late last month, however, she said local police received a series of complaints.
The mother said she later found out neighbors were responsible for the reports.
“What they were saying is they didn’t like the traffic turning around,” she said.
A local official said the first of three complaints was actually in reference to the girl allegedly selling products without adult supervision. The latter complaints were traffic related, said Cedar Falls Public Safety Director Jeff Olson.
One neighbor acknowledged that she called authorities out of concern for Savannah’s safety.
“We’ve had too many people coming in that we don’t know,” said Melissa Winberg. “My daughter was in our driveway riding her bike and a car pulled in and almost hit her.”
Olson said he asked the girl to move away from the edge of the road and she has since used her own driveway as a base for cookie sales.
Winberg, however, questioned the efficacy of Kara Watters encouraging the behavior.
“We had three semis, a dump truck and four cars parked along the road,” she said. “To be honest, if her mom wants to open a cookie shop, there are other ways of doing it than making her 10-year-old daughter sit on the corner for seven hours a day.”
[Featured image: Savannah Watters, video screenshot]