WASHINGTON — Tracie Brown and her two young Girl Scouts are still selling cookies on Tuesday, a day after a man stole between $1,500 and $1,800 from the young entrepreneurs. The money had been collected from cookie sales over the last couple of months.
According to Brown and a police report, the robbery happened Monday afternoon around 4 p.m. in the 400 block of 11th Street, Northeast.
Brown said that part of the reason the money was stolen is that she had to run in and out of her home to make change for a few customers who purchased cookies with large bills. Usually, she doesn’t leave the money out. But as she tried to accommodate the customers, someone was keeping an eye on the money.
The man, who Brown believes saw the money at some point, went in her car and grabbed the cash she had put under the seat of her minivan.
Brown said when the guy first parked and came by their cookie stand, she thought he was friendly and wanted to buy cookies; she never saw him as a threat.
Between helping her daughter with her Girl Scout vest and having her back turned to her car, the man was able to snatch the money without Brown noticing at first.
After her neighbors yelled to her about the man inside her car, Brown tried to stop the man, even grabbing the bag of money and trying to wrestle it away from him.
Instead of getting the money back, she reportedly got tossed to the ground and even sustained minor injuries from being run over by a stolen getaway car that a second man was driving. Police told Brown the car she was run over by had been stolen before her cookie money was taken by the men.
"He ran over me with the car!" Brown said. "I had tire tracks on my arm, and I have a couple of bruises."
While some of Brown's neighbors saw what happened, they didn't want to speak to WUSA9 on camera.
At this point, D.C. Police do not have any leads on the suspects.
Police told Brown they are going to try and track the car that was stolen, but said that she was, unfortunately, part of a bigger spree and didn't promise her false hope that she would get her money back.
Brown said it's inconceivable that someone would steal money from Girl Scouts selling cookies. And while she's reached out to the Girl Scout troop that is located at her church, she's worried she will have to cover the loss profits herself.