FORT WORTH, TX — A father and son were arrested this week following the dramatic escalation of what neighbors are calling “the lemonade wars,” a weeks-long feud between two families operating competing children’s lemonade stands on the same suburban Fort Worth street that culminated in vandalism, a stolen folding table, and one count of disorderly conduct.

Gregory Paul Mathis, 38, and his 17-year-old son were arrested after the rivalry with a neighboring family’s stand — operated nominally by an 8-year-old but, witnesses say, “clearly run by the dads” — boiled over on Saturday afternoon. What began as competitive pricing reportedly devolved into accusations of “poaching customers,” a price war that drove a cup of lemonade down to four cents, and finally, the alleged late-night theft of the rival stand’s signage.

When Life Gives You Lemons, Apparently This Happens

Tensions had been building for weeks. The Mathis stand allegedly undercut the rival stand’s prices; the rival stand allegedly retaliated by offering “free cookies with purchase”; the Mathis stand allegedly escalated to “free cookies AND a sticker.” The conflict turned criminal when the rival family’s hand-painted sign reading “BEST LEMONADE ON THE BLOCK” was found defaced overnight to read “2ND BEST LEMONADE ON THE BLOCK.”

“These are grown men. The children stopped caring about the lemonade two weeks ago. The kids are friends. They play together. It’s the fathers. I separated two adult men arguing about the structural integrity of a competitor’s folding table.” — Officer Cassandra Wills, Fort Worth PD

The confrontation reportedly turned physical when the elder Mathis attempted to relocate the rival stand’s table “to a less competitive corner.” Both Mathis and his son were booked into the Tarrant County Jail on charges of disorderly conduct and criminal mischief. Their JailReport.lol booking has been filed under WTF News. The children of both families have reportedly merged their stands into a single venture and are, per one parent, “doing great, actually.” Bond was set at $500 each.