Yet, believe it or not, three boys—aged 11, 12, and 16—decided to live out a scene from "The Little Rascals" in real life. They confidently strutted into a Wells Fargo bank in Texas and made off with an undisclosed sum of cash.
What's particularly striking is that these youngsters not only executed the robbery but also managed to slip away, remaining at large. Local authorities have affectionately dubbed them the "little rascals," but jokes aside, the situation is grave. If caught, these kids could be looking at years behind bars for their audacious crime.
From ABC 13:
Initially, a witness told officials the boys appeared to be between 14 and 18 years old. But, in the arrest update, the FBI said they are 16, 12, and 11 years old.
"The age of the younger two, that's unusual for a bank robbery," Mike Schneider, a retired juvenile district court judge, told ABC13. "It's one of the first times I've seen that."
While FBI Houston released the surveillance photos, the case is a Harris County Sheriff's Office investigation.
According to HCSO, the boys passed a threatening note to a teller. They were believed to be armed, though they did not present a weapon, and they got away with an undisclosed amount of cash.
Once the photos were released, HCSO started getting tips from the public. Parents of two of the boys came forward and identified them, the sheriff's office said. The third boy was handled by a law enforcement agency following a fight and recognized. The sheriff's office said authorities recovered a weapon and a distinctive item pictured in one of the photos.
The "little rascals" are charged with robbery by threat, a second-degree felony.
"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," Schneider said.
Investigators will not say if anyone else is involved or whether any cash was recovered.
