Teenagers Confronted by Armed Man While Promoting Their Small Business: ‘Always Ready to Shoot’

In a viral video, an unidentified man pulls a handgun on three teens who were going door-to-door promoting their car detailing business.

Pinellas County deputies told 10 Tampa Bay News that they are investigating a confrontation that occurred last week near Gulfport in which three college students were accosted by a man with a loaded firearm who demanded to know what they were doing in the neighborhood.

The video was recorded by 20-year-old Giovonnie Lenhart, who, along with his two friends, Alekos Speaker and Santi Salinas, started a mobile car detailing business last month to try to make money over the summer between college semesters. To drum up customers for the business, which they call 2 Clean Whips, they were canvassing a local neighborhood when the unidentified man approached them aggressively with his firearm cocked and ready.

In the video, he can be seen swearing at the three teens and demanding to see their identification, despite not being a police officer and not having the authority to do so.

“Show me your business card,” he demands at the top of the video after checking one of the students’ IDs. “Well, how come you all are going door-to-door? Why are you skipping random houses?”

The three teens explain that they had been skipping homes without cars in the driveway since those people are likely either not home or don’t need their car detailing services.

“I could tell you’re checking out the homes,” he says. “I want to know why.”

“I understand why you would be worried, but we don’t have any bad intentions at all, sir,” one of the teenagers responds. “We’re just young kids; we’re college kids trying to make money this summer.”

When Lenhart asks the man to put his gun away, he refuses.

“If you want to [expletive] with people on this street, you’ve got the wrong [expletive] street, you got me?” he says.

When a neighbor comes to mediate the situation and points out that the man’s firearm is cocked and ready to fire, he says, “It’s always [expletive] ready. It’s always ready to shoot.”

Despite the incident, the boys told 10 Tampa Bay News that they’re motivated to “keep pushing” for their business. Since gaining some notoriety from the now-viral video, 2 Clean Whips set up a GoFundMe to try to raise money to further help them financially.

Florida is a stand your ground state, meaning pulling a firearm on someone on your property is lawful in the right circumstances. However, brandishing a weapon on a public street could carry criminal charges.

So far, the Pinellas County police have not elaborated on their investigation, but the teens were reportedly reprimanded for not having a soliciting permit following the incident.