In a bureaucratic showdown, 13-year-old Emma McCarroll found herself at odds with a stringent municipal code officer in Pinedale.

The following is from the Cowboy State Daily:

The spat between the city and the Girl Scout and her mom began when the code enforcement officer asked the mom, Erica Fairbanks McCarroll, if she had the landowner’s permission to sell from the city’s Pine Avenue spot and park a vehicle in a driveway there.

Puzzled, Fairbanks McCarroll didn’t answer the officer’s question because the spot where she parked was in the driveway of her parents.

Nonetheless, the officer snapped photographs of their sales activity between March 13 and 15 to prove that Emma McCarroll had set up the stand, and mom had parked illegally in the driveway, which straddled the public sidewalk on Pine Avenue.

Venting her frustration, Fairbanks McCarroll, Emma’s parent and owner of the property, expressed disbelief at the officer’s lack of leniency, citing familial ties to the Fairbanks.

‘She received two verbal requests to relocate her stand outside of the WYDOT right-of-way, off of the sidewalk, and closer to her parents’ private property,’ the town said.

‘Despite these requests, the stand remained on the sidewalk, prompting the issuance of three citations for obstructing the sidewalk.’

Mayor Matt Murdock weighed in, confirming that the McCarrolls were instructed to relocate their sales setup but chose not to comply.

Young Emma, undeterred by the bureaucratic roadblock, criticized the heavy-handed approach, deeming the $400 fine for selling cookies on her grandparents’ property as unreasonable.

Emma’s Mom says that her brother has the matter now on a future town meeting.

‘The code enforcement officer admitting later to my brother that she was having a bad day on Friday, and that she didn’t realize my brother had any siblings,’ the mother said.

‘Is that to say that if she knew I was really part of the Fairbanks family, she wouldn’t have written me the tickets?’

Thanks to our friends at The Gateway Pundit for contributing to this article.

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