 were mowing a lawn and cleaning up the grass clippings as part of a hired job. Reggie's summer lawncare business received a helpful response from the public.){kind=link}
Reggie Fields, a 12-year-old entrepreneur at the time, had the police called on him when he and some of his employees (who are also children) were mowing a lawn and cleaning up the grass clippings as part of a hired job. Reggie’s company, Mr. Reggie Lawn Cutting Service, is a summer lawncare business that he started and developed on his own. So why the police call?
Why Did the Neighbors Call the Police on the 12-Year-Old Entrepreneur?
Reggie, a resident of Maple Heights, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland), wanted to build a life for himself, even at the age of 12. So he decided to start a business, Mr. Reggie Lawn Cutting Service. He worked hard to get the supplies he needed and hired friends and other children in his family. Then he went to work. One day Lucille Holt-Colden spotted Reggie and some of the employees from his lawncare business pushing their lawncare equipment outside of a store, and it moved her. She decided to hire the Mr. Reggie Lawn Cutting Service to care for her lawn.
Only, as she watched the four children (two girls and two boys) mow and rake the grass off the sidewalk and the neighbor’s driveway, she noticed a police car pull up. She found out her neighbors had called the police because Reggie had accidentally cut a small part of their backyard.
Lucille posted a video to Facebook and the story went viral with more than a half million views. Check out the video here:
After the video went viral, a lot of people jumped on the viral train. TikTok personality, paulfoisy, posted videos called “Neighbor Calls Cop on 12 Year Old For Mowing Lawn…But Then It Backfires in the Best Way Possible,” explaining the story and today just one of his videos has 170,000 likes. Watch that video here:
@paulfoisy The Ending Will Shock You…😳 L1nk in B1o For Best Storytelling App #storytime #story #truestory ♬ Emotional Piano Instrumental In E Minor – Tom Bailey Backing Tracks
Lucille was particularly upset that the neighbor called the cops without even talking to the kids or herself. In the video she posted, she said, “They should be glad these kids are not out there breaking their car windows out…They should be glad the kids are not out their stealing their cars.”
Although the police didn’t do anything against Reggie or the other children, that doesn’t erase the frightening experience for the children hard at work.
Reggie told The Cleveland Plain Dealer, “I was nervous. I thought they were going to tell me I was in trouble.”
The 12-year-old entrepreneur was thankful the visit from the police was uneventful and that nothing happened to his lawncare business. “I just walked away to another lady’s house and cut their grass. I just walked away and acted like nothing was going on and back in my own world,” he said.
Lucille also told the kids, “I’m so glad you are out here doing something positive. You should not be getting the police called on you just because you’re cutting grass.”
TikTok personality, paulfoisy, continues with the story in a second video:
@paulfoisy The Ending Will Shock You…😳 L1nk in B1o For Best Storytelling App #storytime #story #truestory ♬ Emotional Piano Instrumental In E Minor – Tom Bailey Backing Tracks
As paulfoisy mentioned, the whole situation backfired on the neighbor as viewers became outraged by how the neighbors acted…