Lake Worth Cookie Monster

(upbeat music) - Hey, I'm Tara Saravan, and you're listening to World's Dumbest Criminals. If you're keen to hear about the most ridiculous bizarre and downright stupid criminals and crime stories in the world ever, you've come to the right place. In today's episode, you'll be hearing about the many trials and very few tribulations of a young woman, the media nicknamed Cookie Monster. She became infamous in her teens when she and a mate robbed a nine-year-old girl scout outside a windixi supermarket in Lake Worth, Florida. Cookie Monster went on to commit a lot more dumb crimes and claimed any punishment she received was unfair, even though it was always laughably light. Alrighty, let's get cracking. In January 2008, nine-year-old girl scout Gracie Smith was selling cookies outside a windixi supermarket in Lake Worth, Florida. Gracie was fundraising to pay for a sleep over trip with her girl scout troop to the Miami-C aquarium. It was a heartwarming and wholesome scene, until it wasn't. Lurking nearby were a 17-year-old girl who wasn't named in the press for legal reasons and her 18-year-old mate Stephanie Woods. That's Stephanie with an F, in case you were wondering. The two budget Paris Hilton wannabes had noticed that Gracie was doing a great job selling her girl scout cookies and decided that they would rob the little girl. As Stephanie waited in her car nearby, the 17-year-old approached Gracie and asked her what her favorite cookies were. While Gracie was pontificating about the multiple wonders of her favorite sinister spin cookies, the teen grabbed an envelope containing around $160 off the table. She ran to Stephanie's waiting getaway car and they drove off. Realising she'd just been robbed, Gracie turned to her mother in tears and said, "Mommy, that girl took all my money." Stephanie and her mate were a special kind of willfully stupid. It was the era of the simple live TV show and being thin, diamond, famous for no reason was what a lot of teenage girls aspired to. Stephanie claimed the only reason they got caught for robbing Gracie was because her mate bragged about it at school the next day. You know, not because they were filmed by CCTV cameras in the mall and the parking lot driving away after the robbery. The day after they stole from poor little Gracie, authorities came to park Vista High School and pulled Stephanie and the 17-year-old out of class for questioning. They both confessed to robbing Gracie, but they weren't arrested. Instead, the case was handed over to the state attorney's office to determine if charges would be filed against the teens. After school that day, Stephanie with an F and her mate went back to the scene of the crime to taunt little Gracie because they thought it was unfair they got in trouble for stealing her money. Yeah, I can't comprehend this level of entitlement either. Gracie's mother told WPBF News 25, "They are within 10 feet of the same kid they just robbed last night and there is nothing anybody can do about it." I find that offensive. Gracie added, "I thought that it was a really mean thing to do and I was sad after." She's the cutest little nine-year-old too. In her bucket hat and her little glasses, stealing from her would be like slapping a kitten. You know who wasn't sad after? Stephanie and her little mate. They got dressed up in their best, knee-length denim shorts and tight pastel singlets. Then they grabbed a couple of grand-a-iced coffees from Starbucks and spoke to the news team that were there to interview Gracie about how unfair the situation was for them. Let's have a listen to what Stephanie had to say. Um, pretty much we just saw the Girl Scouts with their little table and me and my friend were like, "Let's get that money that's in that envelope." She was just sitting on the table and I was her and her mom. And her mom wasn't really paying attention. She was like, "Yeah, I'm going to some lady and the girl was standing by herself." And so my friend goes into the window and says, "I was waiting outside of here, like ready to leave." So she grabs the envelope and she says, "You really cooked your rent on my car." And we left and we parked and we split the money. What did you do it? I mean, who doesn't like money? I mean, I don't know. But it's a crime. I know it's a crime, but it was an easy crime. It was easy. It was sitting right there. I mean, there's a lesson learned now, but I didn't think I was going to get caught for it. Like that. I was really aware of the cameras or anything. I didn't think about it. We really didn't really think. What was the lesson you say that you could learn out of this? Probably not to get caught or maybe not to steal. I mean, do you have any remorse about stealing from a nine-year-old girl? Right now, no. Because I'm kind of pissed because I have charges and we'd give the money back anyway, so now I'm pretty pissed. But I mean, some people might say it's not the nicest thing they do to steal money from a child, especially a girl scout selling cookie. Well, I don't know. Money's money and it doesn't really matter to me. I really don't have, like, I don't feel sadness without a little girl. I mean, she's getting a lot of money right now from people who feel bad for her, so whatever. What were you going to use the money for? Probably for gas. Just for gas money and, like, my cigarettes and stuff, I don't know. Are you worried about the misdemeanor charges? Yes, I'm very worried. I'm worried that they might come back up a month later and I'm going to have cops knocking on my door for a warrant. So those people over there, I'm very pissed. Anything else more fair? Not really. Steve, you have any questions? I know you said you had to give the money back or did you spend any amount before? Oh, I spent $50 on gas. I filled up my gas tank and that's it. But I was planning on buying like a necklace and all this stuff and a new phone. But now, I guess not. We should have at least-- got to keep the money. Wow, Stephanie. Wow. Not sure how she was planning on buying a mobile phone and a necklace with the remaining $25. But that's probably the least daft thing she said in the clip. Still, surely she and her friend would be rich soon enough. TV executives would have to notice their charmless combination of heartlessness and apathy and surely they'd want to sign them up for their very own reality TV show about being thin, kind of pretty, and entirely out of touch with reality. They could film them traveling around middle America, stealing from girlguards and possibly orphanages. That's hot. They could be on the cover of Maxim and FHM and party at the Playboy Mansion. It's not like exploitative. It's like empowering. After all, they were entitled to everything they wanted, just because they wanted it. For all that the teenagers sucked about giving back Gracie's money, the police told the media they were unable to recover it from them. Fortunately, one of their dad stepped up and paid the money back to Gracie. The windixie supermarket also donated $200 to her Girl Scout troop. As you heard in the interview, Stephanie and her mate were remorseless about stealing from Gracie and highly likely to re-offend. They felt so entitled and untouchable that they didn't think it was possible for them to do anything wrong. A couple of weeks after the robbery, Stephanie and her 17-year-old mate went to a Denny's near Lake Worth and skipped out on their $26 tab. They were arrested soon afterwards and of course they thought that was totally unfair. Stephanie was already on probation for stabbing her boyfriend with a pocket knife before the girl's robbed little Gracie. That's not hot. In court for the cookie money theft, Stephanie played the victim card hard and blamed the media for all her problems. She took the stand and told a bunch of obvious and provable lies about her involvement. Here's a clip from CBS News about her court appearance. But today in court, all Woods said she did was waiting the car for the front. I started yelling at her. Why? Because I was on probation at the time, still hang out with him. I was saying, you're going to get us both in trouble and we should just go bring a bag. But that's not what she was saying when we interviewed her the day after the theft. Remember this? Today, she was asked about that statement on the stand. Why did you say who doesn't like money? Because the question I was asked was, so do you have a job? I said yes. And you were so you like making money. I said who doesn't like money. But listen to what we actually asked Stephanie that day. Why did you do it? Woods also testified she was paid to do that interview. Why would you admit to being involved in the crime if you weren't? Well, pretty much because of the fact that I was upset and they were, they paid me money at a protest, they paid me money. When in reality we didn't pay her a dime and she actually approached us. At the end of the day the judge wasn't buying any of it and Wood's was found guilty of petty theft. She left the courtroom, she gave our camera one last goodbye. After the judge found her guilty of petty theft, she cursed under her breath. Then she gave the finger to a cameraman and as she was exiting the courtroom, she gave the camera a big shove. But don't worry, Stephanie's here to assure us that she no longer has an attitude problem. I don't have much of an attitude anymore, really, except for the other day. But that was just anger. So what can I say? Aren't you glad to hear that she's fully fixed that attitude problem up? She only has an attitude now when she's angry, which is totally justified. I'm surprised she wasn't done for contempt of court for the lies she told on the stand. But Stephanie was Teflon and the consequences of her actions just slid right off her. Stephanie was sent to juvenile detention to a wait sentencing. Her 17-year-old accomplice got sent to a lock to rehab facility for six months. A week after court for the girl scout trial, Stephanie was back in court for the Denny's debacle. Her dine and dash at Denny's violated the terms of her home detention from the earlier assault on her boyfriend. Her defense lawyer is hilarious. He speaks to the media about Stephanie like she's this fragile, broken, poor, little baby bird. While she's out there giving their cameras the finger. He insisted that the incident at Denny's was just a misunderstanding, not a criminal act? Yeah, I'm sure the Denny's staff misunderstood that no rules apply to Stephanie and her mate. He claimed that Stephanie was not a bad person, just a poor, little, broken, baby bird who made mistakes and needed some guidance. He said, "She's very remorseful. And she's upset that she has not had the opportunity for everybody to judge her from the entire picture. She will show you that she's not the monster that she's betrayed to be." Narrators' voice. They did not, in fact, show anyone that she wasn't the monster she was portrayed to be, 'cause it was her own damn words that portrayed her that way. Not only did he not prove that she wasn't a monster, but the media began referring to Stephanie with an F as Cookie Monster. Cookie Monster was remanded into custody at a juvenile detention centre while she awaited trial for the Denny's incident, where she faced up to 60 days in jail. Let's get Stephanie's take on that. I'm a very strong person. I could handle any type of punishment, even though I think it'd be really unfair if I got 60 days in jail. It'd be really unfair. Her ridiculous attorney told the media that her role in the theft of Gracie's Cookie Money was not portrayed fairly in the news. He said, "I do understand that there was some comments made by her after the event, but I would hope that the event itself is not judged by some children posturing for a camera." For the Denny's debacle, Cookie Monster got three days in adult jail, then was shipped straight back to Juvee. By 2009, Cookie Monster was back on the streets. She had learnt entirely nothing from her previous criminal enterprises. In fact, they'd seem to reinforce her belief that nothing was ever really her fault and any consequences she received for her actions were unfair. So Cookie Monster, her 19-year-old boyfriend Alex Rill and one of his mates named T, decided to rob a man named Quincy Grant, who Cookie Monster had bought drugs off in the past. Cookie Monster arranged to pick up Quincy from a Dunkin' Donuts in Palm Beach Garden so they could do some deals on wheels. After Quincy got in the vehicle, Alex and T jumped in the back, pretending to be kidnappers and held him and Cookie Monster at gunpoint. They stole Xanax and 240 Methodone pills off Quincy and Bizarrely also took his pants. Then they let him out at the Palm Beach Gardens Mall. The idiotic trio had assumed that Quincy would just scamp her off after being robbed to keep his own ass covered. Well, not literally, of course, as they took his pants off him. But Quincy was a good guy drug dealer. He was like, "Oh my god, those strange men kidnapped Cookie Monster! She's in danger! I must get her some help. Stay strong Cookie Monster! We'll get you out of this!" He called 911 and told them the Cookie Monster had been "car jacked" by armed gunmen. Dozens of police officers were involved in the search for the apparently kidnapped young woman. Cookie Monster tried to keep the rules going, later calling the police to tell them that she'd escaped from her abductors and was totes fine. But they were extremely suspicious as her story didn't even come close to adding up. She, her boyfriend and T were all arrested. Still, her ridiculous defense attorney made sure to lie a liar pants on fire in court to protect his poor widow, Fadjile, her bitch will offend a baby bird of a client. He told Judge Amy Smith, "She was in fear! Her will was not her own!" Then prosecutors played the recordings of Cookie Monster calling the authorities to say she was okay and her interview with police that was conducted afterwards. She reportedly told the 911 dispatchers in a cheerful voice. "I was told someone was looking for me. I'm in my car on 95 going back home. I just want to let you know that I'm fine." It seems she and her accomplices thought that call would be enough for the cops to just forget about the whole kid-damped at gunpoint thing. They thought the cops would be like, "She's fine guys! Case closed! Let's go solve another crime! However, that is not how things work." The police were also allowed by Cookie Monster's chill countenance during the call. Officer Randall Anderson told the court, "She didn't appear to be nervous at all. She wasn't crying. It was not consistent with someone who was hijacked and then held with a gun to her head." During her police interview, the cops repeatedly called Cookie Monster out for lying. She denied it, of course, over and over again and it was probably quite unfair that they were interviewing her in the first place, but eventually she cracked and told them about the plan to rob Quincy. But it seems nobody told her ridiculous lawyer. Or maybe he was so stuck on his white knight on horseback coming to her rescue fantasy that he chose to ignore it. She was being held captive against her will. She's a pointless and brutal girl. She's white. She's blonde. She's good looking enough to sometimes make those stupid hot felon listicles. Look at her judge. You simply have to let her go free! Cookie Monster later pleaded guilty to kidnapping and robbery with a firearm. They were both felony charges and could have got her sent to prison for life. But she couldn't lose for winning and she just kept falling up. Judge Smith told Cookie Monster that her main problems were drug addiction, being addicted to horribly bad boys and publicity. Hmm, I feel like she's left a few things out. Perhaps Cookie Monster's ridiculous attorney shared his cool aid with the judge during their lunch break. Yum! Judge Smith said she wanted to give Cookie Monster another chance because she was only 20 at this stage and was at a point where there was no turning back. The judge sentenced her to one year in jail, which she'd already served, and ordered her into a department of corrections drug treatment. Judge Smith said that after Cookie Monster had completed drug treatment there, she would be placed on two years of house arrest and eight years of probation. If Cookie Monster were to test positive for drugs during that time, she would face 15 years to life in prison. Sure she would. Judge Smith told No Lies when she said a lot of people would not be happy about this sentence. I mean everyone serving life in prison for marijuana possession was certainly scratching their heads over it. You know how Cookie Monster seems to always think she's being treated unfairly? It turns out that she was right, but not in the way she meant. Assistant State Attorney, sorry. Cyrus Tufanian and Judge Amy Smith got in trouble over a recorded sidebar where they were conspiring to treat Cookie Monster far more leniently than other criminals in her position. They could be heard in the recording discussing how to keep reduced charges and a plea deal out of the public eye, which is not the kind of treatment most Florida defendants receive. Later turning Michael McCaylor told the Sun Sentinel, Tufanian's plan to reduce conspiracy, false imprisonment and kidnapping charges to robbery, and he and the judges wished to keep hearings off the record where inappropriate and inexcusable. He said there is no justification for this attempt to avoid public knowledge and scrutiny of a specific case. Tufanian was suspended without pay and resigned soon afterwards. Why are people torpedoing their careers to give Cookie Monster more chances? I just don't get it. Maybe her parents are super wealthy and influential or some relative is? I don't know, none of that was mentioned in any of the reporting. But it's very odd. Judge Smith defended her role in the cover-up, saying she was trying to ensure Cookie Monster wouldn't be treated more severely because of her infamy. Then she poured herself another huge glass of cool aid. Yum. It seems treating Cookie Monster with kid gloves did not have the desired effect. Unless the desired effect was for her to embark on a shit ton of parole violations, I'm not going to break them down by month or year as we'd be here all fucking day. Instead I'll just give you a highlight reel. She violated her curfew, lied to her probation officer, didn't report for mandatory drug tests, didn't pay her court fines or perform her community service and associated with no one felons. She also failed to gain court approval to leave Broward County but went away anyhow. Her probation officer wrote that she "lacks the ability, desire or maturity to appreciate her sanctions." While she was away in Palm Beach County without permission, she picked up three traffic offences for excessive speed, failure to show proof of insurance and running a red light. She was also accused of being involved in the theft of $400 from a car parked at a gas station in Boca Raton. She later admitted that she was with the person suspected of swiping the cash and drove them away from the scene of the crime. How's that for Dejavu? And she also presented a fake New York identification card when she was pulled over by a maplened police officer. Any one of these violations would probably have got somebody else sent to prison for over a decade. But not Cookie Monster. By this point she had a new defense lawyer, but he was going with the same playbook as the old one, probably because it had worked so well in the past. These old reporters that Cookie Monster was innocent of any wrongdoing and said, "We deny that there is any other criminal activity. There is much more to this story than appears on the surface." But really, there wasn't. In October 2014, 24-year-old Stephanie took a plea deal, admitting that she violated her probation by giving a false name to police during a traffic stop. So out of all of the ways she violated her probation, they just went, "Oh, we'll pick one. We'll pick one. One's enough. You've suffered enough, Stephanie." She was sentenced to 6.4 years in prison and given credit for the two years she'd spent in jail in the past, which is a remarkably good deal. Although it had been over six and a half years since she and her friend robbed Girl Scout Gracie and despite all the other illegal shit she'd been caught doing since then, this was to be the first time Cookie Monster would set foot in prison. To finish up, I have a few punchline crimes for you. These are short cases that sound more like jokes than something that actually happened. In August last year, 33-year-old Nathan Ramsey led police on a car chase through the city of Toowoomber in Queensland. He ignored the cops' instructions to pull over so they laid tire deflation stingers across a street. When his front passenger tire blew off, Nathan continued to drive on the rim, even passing an oncoming truck on the wrong side of the road. Nathan, ya knob? After driving around around about the wrong way, he and the passengers in the car jumped out and scamp it off. The police dog squad found him hiding nearby. When he ran from them, one of the very good boys or girls all latched on to Nathan. At the watch house, the police found he was carrying a small amount of cocaine, a 22-calibre bullet and a used syringe. Nathan pleaded guilty to 12 offences from that night and was sentenced to 12 months in jail. He was also disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver's licence for five years. My favourite detail from this case is that while Nathan was being treated for a dog bite wounded to Womber hospital, a clip seal bag with 3.4 grams of meth was found in his buttocks. Now I don't know how they treat dog bites in Queensland, but it sounds pretty intrusive. In July this year, 29-year-old Stephanie Bauer was jailed for 16 years for the murder of Darren Russell in Scotland. She felt that 21-year-old Darren had disrespected her brother and rather than take one of the literally hundreds of other options available to her, she decided to stab him to death. It seems having messed up priorities as a defining aspect of Stephanie's personality. After she was convicted of murder, her biggest concern was that she didn't look glamorous in her mug shot. You'd think that'd be the last thing you were thinking about, but not Stephanie. A friend of hers told the media, "The police mug shot was taken after she'd been on a bender at Hogmanay, murdered a guy, and then been arrested, questioned and charged over it. She was mortified with how she looked in the picture and the fact that it was plastered everywhere when she got convicted. She was telling everyone that she looks like a bag of washing in the picture. I'd rather look like a bag of washing than be a murderer, but okay." Another of her friends added, "I went she got reminded, or she cared about was still being able to get her fake tan in her cosmetics, and she made sure as soon as she was in there that they were some of the first things she bought." Hmm, priorities. A New Jelly Circus worker wanted to increase his Facebook followers, so he did what any sane and rational person would do. He video called his wife while she was having a bath and then posted her nude images on his Facebook account without her consent. Seriously, it's guys like this that give Kanye's a bad name. His wife told the Times of India, "My husband is a social media addict, but I could never imagine that he would go to such extreme lengths in a bid to increase his followers. I was shocked when I came across my obscene pictures on his Facebook profile and immediately asked him to delete them, however he refused." "What?" "Is choosing potential Facebook followers over his actual wife?" Hmm, the woman contacted the police and a case under the IT Act was registered against her husband. Although the case is ongoing, the police made him delete his Facebook account. How many followers have you got now, Dickhead? His hoping his wife gives him a divorce for Christmas. This brings me to the end of the episode. Thanks for listening. Make sure you subscribe if you want to stay up to date with all future episodes. And if you dug what you heard, please leave a review. Thank you to Juki from the USA, Kamucia from Australia and Buffy Cawdy from Canada for your kind words. I'm super stoked to hear that you're enjoying the podcast. If you'd like to support World's Dumbest Criminals, head on over to patreon.com/WorldsDumbestGriminals. All levels get access to monthly bonus episodes and add free episodes and higher levels also receive some merchandise. Thanks so much to Jules Martin for coming on board as a patron. And thanks to all my patrons, I really appreciate your generosity. If you're up for more dumb criminals action in your life, you could follow me on Twitter @WDCriminalspod and Instagram. at World's Dumbest Criminals Podcast. Or you could join our World's Dumbest Criminals Podcast Facebook group. And thanks so much to the legendary Lorraine Leadwell for running the group with me. Till next time, look after yourself, stay out of trouble. And whatever you do, don't commit a crime that makes you end up on this podcast. [Music]