A Florida man is facing charges after he allegedly attempted to buy an 8-year-old girl while shopping at Walmart.
Hellmuth Kolb was arrested on Saturday after a woman claimed he approached her while she was sitting on a bench inside the Port Orange Walmart with her daughter, according to Huffington Post.
The woman, Tracy Nigh, told police the 81-year-old Kolb asked her if she was married before changing the subject to her daughter. “It seemed like a friendly conversation. He didn’t seem like a threat at first,” Nigh told the station.
That is, until Kolb allegedly started badgering Nigh if she would sell her daughter to him. .
The first amount was $100,000, the second amount was $150,000 and then the final amount was $200,000,” Nigh said. “I then said ‘No, we have to go.’” Nigh said when she and her daughter got up to leave, Kolb allegedly grabbed the girl’s wrist and kissed it, according to WJAX TV.
Nigh then alerted store security, who confirmed the incident was caught on camera. Kolb was later identified through a credit card transaction.
He was charged with simple battery and false imprisonment and booked into the Volusia County Jail and later released.
Officers said when they interviewed Kolb at his residence, he said remembered sitting next to a mother and her daughter at the Walmart. He admitted complimenting the woman but said he did not remember grabbing her daughter, according to WNDB radio.
A judge ordered Kolb not to have any contact with the girl or her mother.
