American Notes Los Angeles

The trouble, said Policeman Bruce Barber, was that the perpetrator was only 2 ft. 6 in. tall and so "didn't attract any attention" when she sidled up to the Brinks guard's money bag. While the guard was distracted signing receipts in a cafeteria at Los Angeles International Airport, the tiny girl reached into the bag and pulled out a bundle of cash totaling $8,300. She then toddled back to her nearby parents and handed it to her father. An alert cashier who ! happened to see the exchange rushed over to George Arias, 36, and his wife Joanna, 22, to retrieve the money. As she approached, the wife proffered the bundle and apologized for her daughter.

The mother, father and daughter disappeared, only to be sighted later mingling suspiciously with passengers. Authorities arrested the couple on grand-theft and child-endangerment charges. Police said Arias and his wife could be pickpockets, and that they had trained their 23-month-old daughter to do precisely the kind of swiping she had nearly pulled off. "Apparently her parents taught her to do this," said Sergeant Roger Belding. Authorities put the toddler in protective custody.