Three teenagers made national headlines after they robbed a north Houston bank, but their underage reign of terror came to an end after their parents turned them in to police.
The kids were 11, 12, and 16 years old according to police.
No other details were released about the trio because of their ages.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said that the boys passed a threatening note to a bank cashier at the Wells Fargo bank in Greenspoint just after 3 p.m. on Thursday. The boys did not present a weapon, but the cashier believed they were armed, and they were able to escape on foot with an undisclosed amount of money.
Initially witnesses described the kids as aged between 14 and 18 years.
After the FBI office in Houston released a surveillance photo of the children, tips started rolling in. Parents of two of the boys turned them in to police while a third was identified by law enforcement after he got into a fight. Investigators said they recovered a weapon and also an item that was distinctive from the photos taken during the robbery.
The children will be charged with second-degree felony robbery by threat. They face probation until 18 years of age or juvenile prison until 19 years of age, according to a criminal defense attorney who spoke to KTRK-TV.
They were dubbed the “Little Rascals” by the FBI in their initial request for information from the public.
Retired juvenile district court judge Mike Schneider told KTRK that it was very unusual for bank robbery suspects to be so young.
“It’s one of the first times I’ve seen that,” he said. “I was thinking either this was very low in sophistication or maybe an adult had something to do with this. That is not uncommon. Because kids have a punishment that is less severe, it is not uncommon for adult offenders to get them to commit crimes.”
Law enforcement officials have not said whether other suspects were involved in the alleged bank heist.
Some on social media used the occasion to mock the FBI when they initially asked for help identifying the kiddie culprits.
“I dont know which is more embarrassing that a bank got robbed by some middle schoolers or that the fbi cant find them,” responded one X user.
Here’s more about the “lil Rascals”:
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