Vandal damages lemonade stand that raised money for fallen officers

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A vandal damaged a 14-year-old Denton girl’s lemonade stand that was started to raise money for fallen officers.

Mia Cagle used her birthday money to start the stand and wanted to help the families of the fallen officers in any way.

“When I saw it in the news, it just popped in my head,” Cagle said. “I was like, ‘Mom, I need to do something about this, I want to help.’”

Cagle has been running the stand since Friday. Over the weekend, when set up near her home, Denton police said she and her friends left the stand for a short time to get more supplies. While they were gone, someone destroyed all the signs and stole part of her stand.

“They took our bench, our table was broken and some of our signs were destroyed,” Cagle said. “They probably didn't like the message that we were sending, and that breaks my heart that somebody would do that. It's not right.”

On Monday, police brought a new table, more lemonade and more cups and gave them to the kids.

“We wanted to let her know that we heard her message and it means the world to us,” said Det. Wade Laughlin, who responded to the vandalism incident.

The stand reopened near the Denton County Courthouse.

“Now we are here and it's awesome,” Cagle said. “I feel great about doing this. And I'm hoping that this will really help them.”

As of Thursday afternoon, Cagle had raised about $430.