BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. -- The State Attorney's Office will decide whether to charge two teens who admit they robbed a 9-year-old Girl Scout selling cookies outside of a Boynton Beach supermarket.
"I thought that it was a really mean thing to do, and I was sad after," Girl Scout Gracie Smith told WPBF News 25.
Authorities said that a 17-year-old girl in a hot-pink sweatshirt approached Smith outside of a Winn-Dixie supermarket at Hypoluxo and Jog roads in Boynton Beach Wednesday evening and asked the girl what her favorite cookies were. Police told WPBF that, while Smith was telling the teen about her favorite Cinna-Spins, the teen snatched an envelope containing about $167 off of Smith's table, hopped
into another teen's car and drove away.
Smith told WPBF that she turned to her mother in tears, saying, "Mommy! That girl took all my money!"
Authorities said they caught up with the 17-year-old girl Thursday and pulled her out of class at Park Vista High School, where she allegedly confessed to the crime, WPBF reported. Investigators said the girl's female accomplice, another a Park Vista student, also confessed.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said that the case has been handed over to the State Attorney's Office to determine if charges will be filed against the teens.
Smith's mother, Charlene Rubenstrunk, told WPBF that the girls returned to the store Thursday to taunt her daughter.
"They are within 10 feet of the same kid they just robbed last night and there is nothing anybody can do about it. I find that offensive," Rubenstrunk said.
The girls, whose names are not being released because they are minors, told WPBF that they were not remorseful for the crime, and that they did it because they "needed money."
"We went through all that effort to get it, we got all these charges and we had to give the money back. I'm kind of pissed," one of the girls told WPBF.
The other girl told WPBF that she was upset because police found them.
"I'm not sorry, I'm just pissed that I got caught," the girl said.
Money collected from the cookie sales were supposed to go toward Smith's sleep-over trip with Troop 664 to the Miami Seaquarium. Police were unable to recover the stolen money, but a father of one of the teens accused in the crime paid the money back to Smith's mother, WPBF reported.
Authorities said the teens were not charged because they did not use force to steal the money, nor did they take the money from the Girl Scout’s hands.
The State Attorney's Office will decide if the teens will be charged.
The Winn-Dixie supermarket is donating $200 to the troop, WPBF reported.
Equality indeed.