An 81-year-old man who offered money to a woman at a Port Orange Walmart to buy her 8-year-old daughter on Friday has been arrested, Port Orange police said.
Police said Tracy Nigh was sitting on a bench inside the Walmart on Dunlawton Avenue with her daughter when she said Hellmuth Kolb approached them. The mother said he asked her if she was married and then asked about her 8-year-old daughter.
“It seemed like a friendly conversation,” Nigh said. “He didn’t seem like a threat at first.”
Kolb then began asking Nigh several times if she would take money in exchange for her daughter.
“The first amount was $100,000, the second amount was $150,000 and then the final amount was $200,000,” Nigh said. “I then said ‘No, we have to go.'”
Nigh said she was becoming more and more uncomfortable with the situation so she got up to leave with her child.
“I think what was going through my mind was, ‘What was going to happen here?’ and I just need to get her away as quickly as possible,” she said. Continue Reading