FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ He's only 12, but the Broward Sheriff's Office says a boy was part of a baby-faced trio accused of committing an armed hijacking against an elderly woman at a Walmart store in Lauderdale Lakes.
The child was taken into custody Friday; his cohorts were still at large, the Broward Sheriff's Office said Monday.
On the afternoon of Jan. 15, Albina Curik, 81, and three boys walked into a Walmart at the same time, surveillance video showed. When Curik walked in the parking lot to her car, the boys surrounded her as she approached the driver's door.
One of the boys pointed a gun and demanded her keys, according to the sheriff's office.
Curik at first thought the hold-up was a joke, she told the Sun Sentinel last week. When she asked the armed boy to repeat his demand, he snatched her keys, she said.
After the hold-up, they jumped into Curik's light brown Toyota Corolla sedan.
"The three robbers fled so abruptly that they nearly struck (Curik) with the car as they pulled out of the parking space," Gina Carter, a spokeswoman for the Broward Sheriff's Office, said last week.
The stolen Toyota was found about two miles from the store, shortly after the robbery, Curik said.
Because they are minors, the Sun Sentinel is not publishing the boys' photographs or releasing the name of the child who was arrested.
Each boy appeared on store video wearing a dark blue knit cap, sandals with socks and athletic attire. One wore a Chicago Bulls jersey.
