Old Newsboys volunteers booted off Clayton street corners
Brett Blume Reporting
CLAYTON, Mo. (KMOX) -- In Clayton, it's Old Newsboys vs. the Boys in Blue on a day that's supposed to be about charitable giving.
Sally Friedman and her husband Don of Clayton said they decided to step forward for the first time this year as volunteer distributors of the special Old Newsboys edition of the Suburban Journals.
She tells KMOX News that they had taken up their assigned positions along Hanley Road when a Clayton police car rolled up.
Friedman says the officers told the Friedmans that they were breaking the law - and weren't necessarily kind about it.
"They said since we'd already been warned now twice, we'd better not get warned a third time or we would really be in trouble," Friedman recalled.
She calls is a very disillusioning experience.
"We thought it was an important enough cause to put this effort into it, and we are furious."
Old Newsboys Day is a St. Louis tradition since 1957.
Business executives, media personalities, sports figures and others are standing on street corners selling a special edition of the Suburban Journals with the proceeds going to children's charities.
The annual tradition has raised millions for charity over the last half-century.
KMOX News spoke Thursday morning with police chief Thomas Byrne, who apologized for the confusion but said they were simply enforcing a "no soliciting" law on the books in Clayton.
He said in past years there has been close communication between the city and organizers of Old Newsboys Day, but for some reason that didn't happen this year.
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