A 14-year-old Florida girl handed out more than $10,000 to classmates at a middle school that she is accused of stealing from her grandmother, according to deputies.
Marion County deputies responded to Lake Weir Middle School in Summerfield on Thursday after reports that a student was giving classmates hundreds of dollars each, according to an arrest report.
Summerfield is located about 60 miles northwest of Orlando.
According to deputies, school officials searched the girl’s backpack and found about $2,500.
The girl said she had been given the money by an unknown former student who wanted the money disseminated.
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Investigators say they later determined that the girl had broken into her grandmother’s home safe and stolen about $13,500 of the woman’s savings.
The grandmother told deputies that the money was from the sale of a house and that having the money taken was “devastating,” the arrest report stated.
According to deputies, the girl came clean and admitted to investigators that she broke into the safe using a screwdriver and metal pick.
“She advised she took a stack of 20 dollar bills the size of about 6 inches out of the safe,” the report said, adding that the girl said she handed all the money out at school and at the bus stop.
By Friday, officials had recovered about $700 of the money that had been given to other students.
That money and the $2,500 recovered from the girl’s backpack were returned to the grandmother.
The girl is facing a grand theft charge, according to deputies.
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