Entrepreneurial teens told they can’t shovel snow by cops; story snowballs on social media into an avalanche [Video]
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Some nosy neighbor calls the police on two teenagers going door to door to shovel snow? You’ve got to be kidding me. Where I come from, you thank your lucky stars if some young guys come around offering to shovel you out. Especially if you don’t have a snow blower. What a jerk for reporting them. He obviously didn’t watch them for very long or he would have seen what they were doing. And seriously, a snow emergency? What a crock. These two young guys were trying to earn a little extra cash, not beg door to door in a blizzard. They are capitalists, not progressives.
From BizPac Review:
Two energetic teenagers reportedly had their shoveling business squashed by government regulations last week, but the story gets a little muddy after a social media avalanche.
Home from school in Bound Brook, NJ for a blizzard that never happened, the teens decided to be productive with their time. With at least a few inches of snow on the ground, they thought they could make some extra cash and offered shoveling services in their neighborhood.
The 18-year-old boys, Matt Molinari and Eric Schnepf, found out the hard way – wherever there is an ounce of ingenuity or entrepreneurial spirit – there will be a government regulation to squash it.
The two friends started their journey Monday evening, and handed out flyers which offered their services. It wasn’t long before they were approached by police and ordered to stop their budding business, myCentralJersey.com reported.
A nearby resident witnessed the interaction between the boys and police and took their grievance to a popular Bound Brook Facebook page.
“Are you kidding me? Our generation does nothing but complain about his generation being lazy and not working for money,” the resident wrote. “Here’s a couple kids who take the time to print flyers, walk door to door in the snow, and then shovel snow for some spending money. And someone calls the cops and they’re told to stop?”
Common-sensed members of the Bound Brook Facebook page agreed and offered overwhelming support of the young entrepreneurs, despite the municipality’s law against unlicensed solicitors and peddlers, according to myCentraJersey.com.
After reading the online comments, Police Chief Michael Jannone maintained the boys were not in any criminal trouble, but were concerned about the their safety in dangerous conditions.
He also reminded reporters that due to the impending blizzard, there was a “state of emergency” issued, where all vehicles were to be off the roads.
Jannone defended the city ordinance against unlicensed salesman.
“The spirit of the ordinance is to protect residents from gypsy activity. People will solicit door to door and target the elderly and get into their house,” Jannone said.
“We even encouraged them (the boys), that tomorrow when the state of emergency is lifted, and weather conditions are better to come back and good luck to you,” Jannone told NBC New York.
The boys were very respectful of the police and they just wanted to work. They look like good kids. But New Jersey loves to regulate and suffocate entrepreneurship every chance they get. So, now they use gypsies as an excuse. I don’t remember hearing about roving packs of gypsies in New Jersey or New York. Go figure. People love others like this who are actually willing to work for pay. You know, get off their butts from in front of the big screen or computer and do some physical labor. The conditions there did not look very dangerous to me, unless of course you are a government bureaucrat who is afraid someone might do something useful for a change. I hope the boys went back – I know I’d hire them in a flash.
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