Selling Cocoa For Charity Gets Man Hit With Hefty Fine

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK -- Police shut down a Dyker Heights cookie stand raising money for a children's charity and handed its owner a $4,000 ticket on Saturday, the Brooklyn baker told Patch.

Bagel Schmagel owner Greg Maugeri, 41, had just set up a cocoa and cookie stand when six police officers and three health department inspectors marched up his driveway and told him he was breaking the law.

"It's horrible," Maugeri told Patch. "We're not gouging the tourists, the money is for kids with cancer."

This was the first time Maugeri ever had a problem with police, despite having run the charitable cookie stand, which courts the more than 100,000 tourists who travel out to Dyker Heights to see the Christmas decorations, for the past four years, he said.

The Brooklyn baker typically spends five days out on the concrete handing out $3 cups of cocoa and $3 cookies, raising about $2,500 for established nonprofits such as Toys For Tots, as he did in previous years, or Cookies For Kids' Cancer, as he had planned to do this year.

"I lost my stepdad over the summer to Leukemia," Maugeri explained. "I thought since I'm a baker it would go off without a hitch."

A sketch of Maugeri's cocoa stand, courtesy of the baker's daughter.

Maugeri believed he had done what the law required when he applied for, and received, tax documents and a certified permit from New York State, he said.

Then the cops showed up.

"It was an onslaught," said Maugeri. "The city said,'You can't sell the cookies the state said I could."

"It's a Catch-22."

Now Maugeri has launched a $10,000 GoFundMe site to cover the costs of fines and attorneys he'll need when he heads to court on Jan. 25. But whether or not he wins his case, Maurgeri told Patch this might be his last year running the hot chocolate and cookie stand.

"I used to love it ... but with all these rules and regulations, it's become a burden," he said. "It takes the joy out of it."

The Department of Health confirmed the Health Department, NYPD, and partner agencies responded to complaints regarding unlicensed food operations in Dyker Heights.

"Mr. Maugeri was cited for vending on private property without a valid Temporary Food Service Establishment Permit at the time of the inspection," a spokesperson said.

This story was first reported by Pix11.

Photo by Greg Maugeri, used with permission