MONROE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) — Call them baby bandits. Investigators say three young children went on a wild interstate crime spree, hitting business after business.
“I credit the officers for their attention to detail and constant evaluation of their surroundings. This could have been a tragedy,”Monroe County Sheriff Troy Goodnough said.
Goodnough says deputies responded to an alarm going off at Trojan Powersports on Telegraph Road in Monroe Township after someone slammed a vehicle stolen in Toledo through a garage to get inside.
When they got there, they say they found three suspects. One was trying to drive away in that vehicle. Two were trying to drive off on stolen dirt bikes.
One had what appears to be a gun in their waistband. Deputies ordered them to stop and they made a decision the sheriff is grateful for: They complied.
Deputies later learned the suspects are only 8, 11 and 13 years old.
“What if they had gotten in the car and fled or on foot? What if they had reproduced that BB gun, which replicated a handgun? The outcome may not have been very good,” the sheriff said.
The Monroe County sheriff says they used the stolen vehicle in the hours prior to their arrest on Friday, July 8 to stop at Cabela's, Walmart and Meijer to steal stuff found in the car with them. They are also suspects in numerous break ins in Toledo.
“What are they thinking at this age? They have just torpedoed their life if they don’t get put on the right track,” Goodnough said.
Because they are so young, a shift commander released them to the custody of family members while they wait to be arraigned.
The sheriff says the investigation is far from over with many questions unanswered from how many crimes these children are linked to, to whether these children were working alone.
