When a major snowstorm hit the East Coast two weeks ago, two entrepreneurial teens in New Jersey were ready.
Until they ran directly into a real force of nature: government nannies.
Matt Molinari and Eric Schnepf, both 18-year-olds from Bound Brook, N.J., were going door-to-door in their neighborhood Jan. 27, handing out homemade flyers that offered snow-shoveling services. School had already been canceled for the next day, when a winter storm was expected to bury their portion of the Garden State under several inches of cold white powder.
But their offer of a free exchange of services for cash caught the attention of the local police force.
According to local news reports, the cops told the kids they weren't allowed to solicit business by going door-to-door without a permit from the local government.
"We weren't looking to break the law. We just didn't know the law," Molinari told CBS New York.
Police Chief Michael Jannone told MyCentralJersey.com the two teens were not arrested or issued a ticket, but were stopped because the town was in a so-called state of emergency in advance of the coming storm.
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