ABC 8 News CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (KRON/CNN) You wouldnt think a little girl selling cookies would be a controversial thing, but in one Iowa neighborhood, it is.
Police in Cedar Falls say theyve received three different calls to police in the span of five days.
They are all because of a 10-year-old girl selling water and homemade cookies.
It was going really well, said Savannah Watters, who was selling the cookies.
This summer, Savannah was selling cookies like hotcakes until neighbors called the cops because they didnt like the traffic.
One of those neighbors tells CNN off camera that she called the police because she was worried about the traffic flow on the street and she was just trying to protect the safety of the children in the neighborhood, including her own, after her daughter was almost hit by a cookie customers car.
Over a period of five days, received three phone calls, Cedar Falls Police Chief Jeff Olson said.
One of the callers wanted officers to do a welfare check to make sure there were proper supervision of the cookie entrepreneur and the other two callers were concerned about increased traffic in the neighborhood.
Well, weve got a little girl been selling cookies and water for four weeks and the traffic is getting to the point that theyre using our driveway to turn around, which is fine, but they almost hit my daughter, the neighbor said. I mean, its just adding. Its getting out of control.
On the third call, she was set up close enough to the 45 miles per hour speed zone street, Olson said. That kind of concern, the officer asked her to maybe go further back from the curb or maybe go into the driveway of her home.
And that is what Savannah did. But she says that change of location to a less visible spot a couple of blocks away from the intersection hurt her business, and her feelings were hurt by what her neighbors did.
I just wish we could have known first because we didnt know anything, and its just hard to believe that they didnt come talk to my mom, Savannah said.
Savannahs mother Kara, who baked the cookies that her daughter sells, is overwhelmed by the whole controversy and all the attention it has attracted her.
I dont want attention and I dont, Watters said. I am not a bad person and I am a good mom, and I would never risk, you know, and I didnt know anything that anyone was bothered, and so I just wish they were to come to me instead of making it all of us you know all of this.
https://www.wric.com/news/national/police-called-multiple-times-on-girl-selling-homemade-cookies/1346391723