Watauga girl scouts robbed of cash box, cookies

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Troop 1299 are well on their way to selling their goal of 9,000 boxes of cookies this year. And they work hard every weekend to do it.

But Saturday afternoon, while the girls were selling outside a Watauga auto parts store, two men came up and stole their cash box.

"A gentleman went up, asked a bunch of questions about some cookies, grabbed a box of cookies, kind of distracted mom with those cookies, talking about them, grabbed the entire cash box and ran," said troop leader Stephanie Massengale.

Massengale says the man ran to a car waiting nearby with a getaway driver. She says it happened right in front of a 9-year-old scout. And there was $248 in the box.

"One of the customers in the parking lot actually followed the gentleman down the street where they threw the cash box out the window," said Massengale.

"I was kind of scared and kind of sad at the same time," said Massengale's daughter and Girl Scout, Trynadee.

Watauga Police are investigating, but surveillance cameras were unable to capture pictures of the two suspects. Despite the setback, the girls were back at the same spot selling cookies on Sunday, but with some new rules in place.

"When we do cookie booths, you have to be kind of observant of what's going on around you and pay attention to small cues that are made that might lead you to believe something might be wrong," said Massengale.

And they have a message for the thieves.

"They're disrespectful," said Trynadee.

"I hope you're happy with making some little girls feel that bad," said Massengale.