Dad's paycheck allegedly snatched from 6-year-old's hands

By David Ibata

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Forsyth County Sheriff’s deputies are looking for man who allegedly snatched a father’s paycheck out of the hands of a 6-year-old girl at a Publix supermarket in Cumming.

The incident happened about 5:30 p.m. Dec. 20 in the gift card aisle of the Publix at 508 Atlanta Highway, according to the police report.

The girls’ father, a landscape worker, called authorities and told deputies that his daughter was holding his $617.50 payroll check when a man walked by, snatched the check from the child's hands and walked away. No one else witnessed the incident.

The daughter “could not describe the suspect and she said that she did not hear him say anything,” an officer wrote in his report. The officer said he asked the girl “if it was possible that she may have just dropped the check or lost it somewhere, and she told me, ‘No.’”

A sheriff’s spokesman could not say why the child had been given the check to hold.

The girl’s mother said she was standing in the greeting card aisle nearby and noticed a man walk by, but did not know what he allegedly had done until she noticed her daughter was no longer holding the paycheck and asked her what happened to it.

The mother and daughter looked for the man and the check but could find neither.

A Publix store manager pulled surveillance video for investigators. They said the video showed the woman standing in the greeting card aisle and a man, carrying items in both hands, walk through the aisle without stopping.

The man later can be seen standing in a register line, paying for some items and then leaving. No check is visible in the images.

The incident report describes the man as a white male in his mid-30s, 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 180 pounds, of medium build and with dark hair and sideburns and a slightly thinning spot on the back of his head. He was wearing a green long-sleeved shirt, black vest and tan pants.

The father said he notified his employer to cancel the check. Sheriff’s investigators asked him to report any additional information, including attempts to cash the check.

“The case is still active, and people with information or tips can call the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 770-888-7308,” Sheriff’s spokesman Capt. Captain Tim House said in an email Wednesday.