R.I.P. Scout26
A familiar pattern played out on Tuesday when a 12-year-old boy was arrested in connection with an attempted robbery of a Walgreens on the Northside.A child or teen enters a store, proceeds to the pharmacy counter and passes a note. The note makes it clear that the business is being robbed, and that the suspect is willing to hurt or kill anyone who tries to interfere. Most of the time, the suspects don't have weapons, but they always imply they do.In some cases, the threat is successful and the offender flees with the score. In others, the robber heads home empty-handed or ends up in cuffs.Whether the would-be robbers are successful or not, the incidents are part of a disturbing trend involving young people being recruited to commit crimes on behalf of someone older, said Lt. Craig McCartt of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.Adults offer cash to kids who commit the crime, McCartt said."Over the last year we've seen kids recruited at school. We've seen kids get recruited as they're walking down the street to the gas station to get a pop," McCartt said. "There's stuff on social media about the money that you can make doing it, and a lot of times these guys are flashing their big rolls of cash on the pictures on social media."
To help battle the recruitment efforts, McCartt urges parents to know who their children are spending time with."Be engaged enough with your kids so you recognize when they come home with a new $200 pair of Jordans that they shouldn't have been able to afford," he said. "Be able to intervene right then and figure out where they are getting that money ... parents should be the strong positive influence on their kids. They should have other people on the street being the influence on them."
