Two little girls and their troop leader were robbed outside a North Side store Wednesday night. The Brownie troop leader became emotional as she told News 4 WOAI how she witnessed the thief steal from the two 3rd graders.

"They didn't take it from me. They took it from my girls," the troop leader said.

The 9-year-olds had set up and sold their cookies at the Walgreens in the Medical Center several times before, and everything had been fine. But Wednesday night, a man stole all of their hard-earned money.

"We were finishing up our shift and we were packing up our cookies," explained the girls' troop leader.

That troop leader, who doesn't want to be identified, said a man then walked up to their table.

"I didn't even think he was looking at the money," said told News 4 WOAI. "I thought he was leaning over to look in the box, like 'What do you have in there?'"

She said then all of a sudden, the man snatched their bag of money and ran off. He got away with about $250. The troop leader chased him, but he got into a car with a woman and drove off.

"The one thing that I was screaming was to call the police, and I just kept yelling out the license plate number," the troop leader recalled.

News 4 WOAI tracked that license plate number to a home on the West Side. Our crew knocked on the door, but no one answered.

"I try to teach the girls that nothing's given, you have to earn it, said the troop leader. "And they earned that money."

The little girls had to learn a very grownup lesson, but intend to continue selling cookies to try to earn more money.

"Both little girls are scared," explained the troop leader. "And they've learned, firsthand, there are bad people out there."

News 4 WOAI learned the man accused of taking the money was inside the Walgreens store prior to the theft. Police are now reviewing surveillance video from inside the store.

how sad is it to rob from girl scouts

Just wonderful, now we will have a Girl Scout Troop packing heat on the North side of town as well as the south. Action=Reaction.