San Jose Heroin Addict Arrested For Wrestling Cookie Money From Girl Scout

Cody Gintz, 23, was arrested Sunday after allegedly snatching a cash box from a Girl Scout selling cookies outside a San Jose Safeway.

Gintz took the box, containing several hundred dollars, from a 10-year-old Girl Scout, who was selling the cookies with other members of her troop to raise money for a San Jose water conservation project. The girl attempted to stop the robbery, but after struggling with him for a moment, she let go of the box and he took off.

He returned to the parking lot about 10 minutes later, where one of the scout’s mothers spotted him getting into his car and driving away.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that the Girl Scouts were able to record the thief’s license plate number, however, and one of the parents quickly called 911 to report the robbery and give them a description of the suspect.

San Jose police soon spotted Gintz driving the vehicle not too far away, where officers stopped him and arrested him for suspicion of robbery.

Gintz told NBC Bay Area in an interview that he stole the money because he was broke and desperate for a heroin fix.

He expressed remorse for his actions, saying that he wasn’t in his right mind because of the withdrawal symptoms, and he wanted to apologize to the Girl Scouts for stealing the cookie money.

“Normally, I would never try this. But I was desperate, so I tried.”

Sophia Contos, the Girl Scout who Gintz wrestled for the lunch box containing the money, was quite shaken by the incident and told NBC Bay Area that she didn’t realize anyone would do such a thing.

The Girl Scouts told police they thought the box contained approximately $600 from the cookie sales, but when Gintz was apprehended he only had $300 on him. He told police he had thrown the empty box into a creek, where they later retrieved it. The L.A. Times reports that all of the stolen money was eventually recovered.

This isn’t the first incident this year in which a crime has been committed against a Girl Scout selling cookies. The Inquisitr recently reported on a young Indiana girl who was wounded in a drive-by shooting while selling cookies in her neighborhood.

This time, though, there was a happy ending for the troop. San Jose police officers returned the box and the money to the Girl Scouts, then chipped in to buy the remaining $240 worth of cookies from the girls — and threw in an extra $60 to boot.

Gintz remains in the San Jose jail under $50,000 bond.

[Image via John Moore/Getty Images]