UPDATE: My [32F] Girl Scout Leader [32F] stole all of the cookie money.

A Reddit user shares the conclusion of a tense situation involving their Girl Scout troop leader, Candie, who stole the troop’s cookie money. After confronting her and contacting the Girl Scouts Council, Candie was removed from her position, and legal action is being pursued to recover the stolen funds. Despite the drama, the user chose to protect Candie’s stepdaughter from gossip and is committed to helping the troop move forward. Read the full story below to see how things unfolded.

‘ [UPDATE] My [32F] Girl Scout Leader [32F] stole all of the cookie money.?’

Most of you urged me to go to the police and file a report. Well I did, but the officer that talked with me said I shouldn’t file a police report yet and should contact Candie and try to procure the money from her to show that when I do file a police report I can show them that I made every attempt to get it from her and that she is aware of the theft. So, I messaged her:

“Candie, in the month of March our Girl Scouts’ bank account was drained. I went to the bank and have account statements and withdrawal slips showing that you made unauthorized withdrawals from the account. If you do not restore the account I will be filing a police report on June 1st to protect myself and the girls”. Her response:

“I will be restoring it no worries. It was not all me but I will be replacing it because I am the one who lost the information. But thank you. I am putting in a certain amount each month towards both girl scouts and the bank. But thank you, I got what you are saying.”.

My response: “I spoke with the branch manager at the bank. They have evidence that it was you. I have had a bank account there for over a decade, they require you to show proper ID when you withdraw money from the account. Also, there are cameras outside and inside the building.”.

Candie’s response: “Well without going into my personal information, I do not remember it, but I am being treated for it. Acknowledged my mistake and will take care of it. It will all be paid to the GS council before August 1st and the remainder of the money is accounted for between my trip to the council shop and the stuff I will be purchasing for the water park.

My first payment to them is June first because that is my first check for my new job. That is all I’m saying on any of this.” After that, I talked with the GS council again and sent them the messages. I told them that if they didn’t resolve this I would.

They had a meeting about it the next day and decided to remove Candie as a volunteer (obviously) and that they would be going after her for the full amount of what they owe the Girl Scouts and what she stole from our troop. They also agreed to deposit the money right back into our account as soon as she was removed from the bank account.

I was super happy about this resolution! There is a catch though… they didn’t want me to tell the parents at our last meeting that this was going on. They had to officially send Candie a letter of removal before it was official.

Also my contact at the GS council said they still wanted me to pass out flyers for Candie’s water park event that she promised. I was pissed about that, because this lady might have a d**g problem or something, how in hell can you trust that she will go buy anything for the water park or even show up? AND if she does what if she uses it as an opportunity to scam them out of more money?

They had Candie drop off the troop meeting information on my porch so I didn’t have to talk to her. Well, I went to the meeting and no one ended turning up because Candie had conveniently scheduled it the day before they had the day off of school, which I wasn’t aware of since I don’t have a child in the school. So no one thought there was a meeting.

I was actually really happy about that, because I didn’t want to encourage them to go to this supposed water park event hosted by criminal Candie. After that, the Girl Scout Council agreed to send a representative to have a meeting with the parents and go over our options for next year and having a new troop leader. Candie sent me a message this morning (I guess one of the parents clued her in about our meeting):

“The only thing that needs to be discussed at tonight’s meeting, is the fact that I will not be returning as troop leader for Troop xxxxxx, my family is moving and will no longer be in the school district or nearby to be able to continue with the truth. I wish you the best of luck.” Yes, s**ew her for trying to cover her own ass. Even though I would love to tell everyone how terrible she is, I decided not to tell the parents about Candie.

I thought about it a lot, and if I did, one of the parents will tell their daughter and then everyone will be gossiping about Candie’s daughter. It is not this poor girl’s fault that her step mom is a crook and I don’t want her to get bullied because of it.

I also think it would turn a lot of the parents away from the troop and I don’t want to ruin everyone’s girl scout experience because of me. Candie is gone and can’t be a part of the troop anymore, so good riddance. Girl Scouts are going after her for all of the money so she will have to face the legal consequences as well. Me telling the parents wouldn’t help anything.

Also, on a positive note, at the meeting one of the parents said they will step up and be troop leader, yay! I have decided to stay on and help them as much as possible. I want to have a good experience volunteering and I shouldn’t give up because of one j**k.

**edit** Just wanted to add to those that are worried that Candie can do this to another troop, she has been black listed from the Girl Scouts organization nationally, she is not allowed to be in any leadership role. As far as her doing something shady somewhere else otherwise… there’s not a whole lot I can do about that. I can’t let everyone in my state know she is a scumbag, so it is what it is.

tl;dr: Candie was kicked out of the troop and the Girl Scouts are legally pursuing her for the money stolen from both the Girl Scouts and the troop. We’re moving on!

Here’s what Redditors had to say:

[Reddit User] −  I’m amazed at the balls on this woman to admit to her crime via text and not even be apologetic about it. She’s her own defense attorney’s worst nightmare. So, the GS are going after Candie now? Will the cops be involved? I don’t know what’s more frustrating, the GS covering this up or Candie’s total lack of remorse.

[Reddit User] −  Good, you’ve got a new leader, happy to hear. Don’t worry about Candie anymore, the Girl Scouts are dealing with it, you don’t have to. lol, that last message, “I won’t be able to deal with the truth.”, I think she may be comprehending what’s happening.

calantorntain −  You probably should tell the council that Candie is going to be skipping town…

[Reddit User] −  This happened in my troop when I was a kid! The troop leader stole our cookie money and went to Atlantic City. The council refused to do anything about it, and our parents made up the difference. I think Girl Scouts of America discouraged publicity for their own benefit, not ours.

Candie won’t have a record now, and will be able to repeat her crime in another town. You should publicize what happened so that it comes up in a Google search of her name.

holdtheolives −  This is a great update! You’ve acted like a fantastic role model and, even though the kids and parents won’t know about this incident, I’m sure that they’ll get so much out of what you can teach them. I was in Girl Scouts as a kid and it really made a difference when we had a leader who really cared about the troop.

Thank you for sticking it out for another year. Congrats on the new leader situation and best wishes towards another year of campfires and cookies! Eat a sleeve of Trefoils for me!

virginiastarlite −  So, did I interpret that correctly? Is Candie suggesting she has some sort of condition that caused her to forget each time she went to the back and stole money from children? Really?

But it is good that you didn’t tell the parents or that it isn’t on the news. When I was in high school, the treasurer for the band boosters stole nearly $40,000 from the savings account.

His daughter was definitely treated differently by other students: her dad was made fun of, people made assumptions about drugs or other things he may have been into to lead him to steal the money, things that she had, people would ask if the band boosters bought it for her, etc, just getting harassed by other students for something she didn’t do and didn’t know about.

And I’m not sure if younger kids or teenagers would treat someone worse if their parent was caught stealing from an organization they volunteer for, to be honest. So even though it would be super tempting to show people Candie’s true colors, I’m sure you spared her stepdaughter a lot of anguish.

nhavar −  Sadly this happens a little too often. I’ve seen parents never show up with hundreds of dollars in cookie money and have to be reported to council. Cookie moms with missing money. Parents running unsanctioned booths getting robbed. Parents running unsanctioned booths getting “robbed”.

And lastly scout leaders with fuzzy accounting practices “one for you, one, two, three for me…” At the end of the day they’re all just people just as inclined to do bad things as any other part of the population.

Alabastercrab −  Do not say anything about Candie, you may face legal action. As crazy as that sounds . You need to protect yourself too. Good job!

[Reddit User] −  You should still go to the police and tell all the parents from the troop. Sounds like Candie is just going to do this again wherever she goes and the GSC is being weak for not dealing with this head on.

norinv −  Ah…my troop mom stole our dues to buy clothes..in 1965. Still remember how bad her daughter felt about her mom’s behavior. It was really disappointing. The 60’s were rough years in lots of ways. 6 year old learns about mis-laid trust.

Do you think the user handled the situation with Candie fairly, especially by choosing not to tell the parents about her actions to protect her stepdaughter? How would you have managed a similar dilemma of balancing transparency with compassion? Share your thoughts and experiences below!