Union City Police Purchase Girl Scout Cookies and Donate Cash to Robbed Girl Scout

A group of police officers in California utilized the power of Girl Scout cookies to turn a negative experience into a positive one.

Right about this time of year someone you know will be offering you the opportunity to purchase Girl Scout cookies. Let’s face it, we don’t just buy them because they taste good but also because of what the cookies represent.

According to Girl Scouts of America, “When you buy delicious Girl Scout Cookies, you’re helping to power new, unique and amazing experiences for girls —experiences that broaden their worlds, help them learn essential life skills, and prepare them to practice a lifetime of leadership.”

Plus it’s good for our kids to participate in selling them because it empowers them to discover the leader within.

That sentiment alone makes it even harder to swallow when a gunman outside a Union City grocery store in California robbed a 12 year-old girl of her Girl Scout cookie earnings.

According to the Union City Police Department, the robbery happened in front of the local Safeway store where the unnamed girl was busy selling her allotment of the cookies. When the suspect asked to purchase some cookies, he left without buying — but returned a short time later with a pistol. The girl’s mother promptly gave up an undisclosed amount of cash that had been collected from her daughter’s cookie sales.

Neither the girl or her mother were hurt, but the thief got away.

This is the second Girl Scout cookie robbery in a week. The other was reported in Philadelphia on February 4 when a 9-year-old scout selling cookies was robbed in front of her Center City home.

The sweet side of the Union City story are the officers at the Union City Police Department who took up a collection of more than $1,000 to make up for the stolen cash. The Union City Police Officers Association also purchased all of the girl’s remaining boxes of cookies.

The girl’s mother delivered dozens of boxes of cookies including their signature Thin Mints and Tagalongs to police on February 9.

“As far as cookies are concerned, we pretty much got everything that they had. A lot of our officers have young kids, either in the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, so a lot of them have been there, sitting outside stores with their daughters — it hit home for them quite a bit.”  Sgt. Steve Mendez, a spokesman for the Union City Police Department told SF Gate.

Thanks-A-Lot, the shortbread cookie with fudge on the bottom with the embossed “Thank You” on each one, takes on an even greater meaning by their kind gesture.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call police at 510-675-5275.

Your Daily Dish reached out to The Girl Scouts of America for a comment.