Carson City deputies surprise local lemonade stand

Carson City Sheriff’s Office deputies “raided” a local residence this week for some lemonade and cookies.

Two-year-old Joseph Pruyt and three-year-old Owen Pruyt were hosting a lemonade stand Monday afternoon when two Carson City deputies, who were patrolling the area, stopped to buy some lemonade and cookies from the two brothers.

The brothers set up the lemonade stand to earn money to buy a new Lighting McQueen race car, but their mom, Casey Pruyt, said she didn’t expect many people would travel through to buy the goodies.

“I was expecting it to be a complete bust, as three in the afternoon on a quiet street is not exactly a high visibility area. However, you deputies took notice of my little boys and stopped,” Casey wrote.

Five minutes into the Pruyt’s entrepreneur venture, Carson City Deputies Cody Bindley and Matt Smith stopped at the stand.

“The boys were so excited to see them, it just made their whole day that the deputies came by,” Casey said. “We weren’t really expecting anyone to come by so it was so exciting for them.”

The boys were willing to offer free cookies and lemonade to thank the deputies, but the two law enforcement officers insisted on paying the boys for the lemonade and cookies and spending a few minutes with the brothers. Casey said the deputies’ presence made it the most successful lemonade stand in her kids’ eyes. She said the boys haven’t stopped talking about the encounter since.

“It is such a good thing and I love that our deputies go out of their way to have those positive interactions with our kids,” Casey said. “They have these interactions and then (the kids) know they can trust the deputies and that they are someone they can look up to who love them and care about them and the community.”

Casey shared the story with the Sheriff’s Office administration, thanking them for employing good deputies. Undersheriff Steve Albertsen said they enjoyed receiving sentiments like these from the community, because those types of encounters are what they want to see from their deputies. “I think it is so cool to see our deputies in action like this, I just love it,” Albertsen said. “I am so glad we got that email because it is great to see our deputies out there especially since they made those kids’ day because that is what we like to see from our deputies.”