Police reimburse Girl Scout for stolen cookie money

It happened this month in Union City, New Jersey. A 12-year-old Girl Scout and her mother were standing in the cold rain outside the Safeway supermarket on Decoto Road, selling cookies. A man, believed to be a teenager, approached and asked about buying cookies, but made no purchase. A short time later he returned with a handgun and took all the cash the mother had received from from cookie sales.

                                                                                     Jere Keyes / Union City Police Department
This is the 100th year Girl Scouts have sold cookies, and nobody can recall another time when a Scout was robbed of her cookie money at gunpoint. Union City police Sgt. Steve Mendez said officers, after hearing of the robbery, said "'Oh my God!' and started busting out their wallets and handing money over." The suspect is still at large, but the mother delivered dozens of boxes of cookies to police (as shown above) and Sgt. Stan Rodrigues also provided a check for all the unsold cookies. The total amount donated by officers and the police association was more than $1,000.00.