RBM
CAGiversary!
The complete article from the Washingtonpost.com
Thousands in Cookie Money Stolen From Va. Scout Troop
Girls Forced to Cancel Trip, but Council Doesn't Press Charges
It took long weekends camped outside their local grocery stores and hours tromping door-to-door, but the Girl Scouts in Springfield Troop 1868 eventually sold enough Thin Mints and Tagalongs to help fund a camping trip to Hersheypark in Hershey, Pa. But then the mother in charge of the troop's cookie sale vanished, as did her young daughter and $4,483 of the cash, troop leaders said. The summer trip was canceled.
Troop parents were stunned that anyone would rip off an institution such as the Scouts. Their instinct, some said, was to call the police. After all, it's a crime.
The Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital called it something else: a debt.
Council officials told parents the missing money would be handled the same way they deal with the many tens of thousands of dollars of bad debt that accumulates each year after their annual cookie sale: through a collection agency.
"You get bad checks," Meidlinger said. "When you have 4,500 volunteers helping you, a couple aren't going to be honest people, and that's too bad. . . . It is doubly insulting because it's the Girl Scouts, for heaven's sakes. . . . It's like taking money from a lemonade stand. It's wrong."
*******
I suppose the Girl Scouts of America don't want to prosecute a bad egg in their midst--think of how it would look in the headlines--but this is certainly a depressing incident. What a world.
Thousands in Cookie Money Stolen From Va. Scout Troop
Girls Forced to Cancel Trip, but Council Doesn't Press Charges
It took long weekends camped outside their local grocery stores and hours tromping door-to-door, but the Girl Scouts in Springfield Troop 1868 eventually sold enough Thin Mints and Tagalongs to help fund a camping trip to Hersheypark in Hershey, Pa. But then the mother in charge of the troop's cookie sale vanished, as did her young daughter and $4,483 of the cash, troop leaders said. The summer trip was canceled.
Troop parents were stunned that anyone would rip off an institution such as the Scouts. Their instinct, some said, was to call the police. After all, it's a crime.
The Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital called it something else: a debt.
Council officials told parents the missing money would be handled the same way they deal with the many tens of thousands of dollars of bad debt that accumulates each year after their annual cookie sale: through a collection agency.
"You get bad checks," Meidlinger said. "When you have 4,500 volunteers helping you, a couple aren't going to be honest people, and that's too bad. . . . It is doubly insulting because it's the Girl Scouts, for heaven's sakes. . . . It's like taking money from a lemonade stand. It's wrong."
*******
I suppose the Girl Scouts of America don't want to prosecute a bad egg in their midst--think of how it would look in the headlines--but this is certainly a depressing incident. What a world.
