Hellmuth Kolb, an 81-year-old man from Florida, has been arrested for attempting to buy a little girl for the sum of $200,000.
Tracy Nigh, the mother of the 8-year-old child, said she was shopping at a Walmart in Port Orange when Kolb approached her and started what was a friendly conversation.
The woman told local media: “It seemed like a friendly conversation. He didn’t seem like a threat at first.”
Kolb asked Nigh if she was married and rapidly moved on by asking her if she would sell her daughter.
The woman said no, prompting the crazed man to up his price for the child.
Nigh went on to explain: “The first amount was $100,000, then the second amount was $150,000, and then the final amount was $200,000. I then said ‘No, we have to go.’”
She also added: “He touched my daughter on the arm and made a comment about her soft skin.”
According to Nigh, she attempted to leave with her daughter when the elderly grabbed the child’s wrist and kissed it.
The mother panicked and ran to store security guards who reviewed videos that confirmed Nigh’s story.
The police were alerted, Kolb was arrested and slapped with the following charges including simple battery and false imprisonment.
It has been confirmed that Kolb was quickly released after being booked into the Volusia County Jail.
Police said that a person reported a similar incident in the area involving an elderly white male who fit Kolb’s physical description.
Kolb told the authorities that while he remembered meeting, sitting next to a mother and her daughter at the Walmart, he has no recollection of attempting to purchase the child as if she was an object.
He also denied trying to pull the child away from her mother.
A judge has ordered Kolb not to have any contact with Nigh and her daughter.
