Girl Scout Troop 45 recoups losses after cookie money theft

Beaufort Girl Scout Troop 45 has recouped the $600 in cookie money stolen from the scouts last weekend at a cookie sale.

“Troop 45 is focusing on the positive in this situation as so many warm-hearted, generous people have stepped up and offered to replace what was stolen from the girls ... above and beyond that amount,” Donna Lee of Girl Scouts of Eastern South Carolina wrote in a news release Wednesday.

A thief stole Troop 45’s cookie money Saturday between 4:15 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. in the Lowe’s parking lot at 207 Robert Smalls Parkway, according to Beaufort Police Department spokeswoman officer Hope Able. The money was taken from a shopping cart as the troop was packing up and preparing to change locations.

The troop is grateful for the donations, Lee said, and would like to use any additional donations to purchase cookies for deployed troops as part of the Cookies for the Military program.

Someone wrote a $1,000 check for Troop 45 to be put toward Cookies for the Military, Lee wrote in an email Wednesday afternoon.

“We have answered all donation inquiries (by) letting everyone know the original amount has been met and recouped and that anything over ($600) will be used for CFM,” Lee wrote.

She added that people interested in donating to Cookies for the Military on behalf of Troop 45 can:

▪  Mail a check made out to Girl Scouts of Eastern SC — and note that it’s on behalf of Troop 45-CFM — to Stephanie Walsh, GSESC 7257 Cross County Road, North Charleston SC 29418, RE: Troop 45/CFM

▪  Make a phone donation by calling Pat Baxley at 843-656-9750 and telling her that it is for Troop 45-CFM

Lee said the case “is now a police matter and an ongoing investigation.”

“Troop 45 is not accepting donations for the troop or themselves,” Lee wrote. “They are paying it forward.”

This story was originally published March 9, 2016 at 8:59 AM with the headline "Girl Scout Troop 45 recoups losses after cookie money theft."