A 14-year-old Florida girl is facing felony grand theft charges after police said she stole $13,500 in cash from her grandmother.
But what’s more puzzling is that she then handed it out to students, police and school officials said.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office said the motive had not been determined, but the teen took half her grandmother’s life savings.
Authorities were called to Lake Weir Middle School on Thursday after receiving reports that the girl was giving out hundreds of dollars to other students, apparently, even to people she did not know, the Insider reported.
Michelle Spaulding, a parent, said that her daughter told her a girl she did not know tried to give her money.
“That’s when she was like, ‘Yeah, mom! The child did come up to me and ask me if I wanted $100,'” Spaulding told KDFW. “And she said, ‘No, it’s got to be stolen, I don’t want nothing to do with it.'”
The teenage girl told officers that she received the money from a friend who had moved away and wanted her to hand it out, Sky News reported, citing an arrest report. KDFW reported that deputies said other students told them the girl had told others it was her grandmother’s money.
The sheriff’s office and school officials are working on getting the money back and have urged parents to ask their kids. So far, school officials retrieved around $2,500 from the girl’s backpack, and another $700 was returned by other students, KDFW reported.
“I really hope it gets recovered because that’s so devastating. I feel really bad for the family,” Spaulding told the news outlet.
