Police said an elderly registered sex offender was arrested on Thursday after he approached a woman and offered to purchase her 8-year-old daughter for $100,000.
It is said that Hellmuth Kolb, 85, remarked on the girl’s attractiveness and inquired about her age while grocery shopping with his wife at a Winn Dixie in Port Orange, Florida on August 16.
Kolb, an Austrian native, then yelled at the lady and encouraged her to “make a deal” with him, laughing as onlookers who questioned why he would make such remarks.
The police spotted Kolb sitting on a bench outside the business and questioned him about the event, to which he said, “We all like kids.”
In 2018, he allegedly attempted to “bid” on a 10-year-old girl who was shopping with her mother for $100,000, then increased his offer to $200,000.
‘He just came up and he started making comments about how pretty she was and how good her dancing was and how he could never have children and he wanted children,’ Benning reportedly said.
Benning said she was in ‘complete shock’ when the conversation took a dark turn and Kolb offered to buy her daughter.
‘He needs to be locked up and not allowed to be around our children,’ she reportedly said.
‘Unfortunately for him, we were able to confirm through his Probation Officer that Mr. Kolb is currently on probation for similar issues, and he is not to have any contact with minor children,’ police said.
He was detained for breaking his probation, which came from a 2018 incident in which Kolb attempted to buy a different child from her mother outside a Walmart.
Tracy Nigh was seated with her daughter on a bench inside Walmart when Kolb approached, asked whether she was married, and began bidding on her kid, first for $100,000 and then for $200,000.
Nigh said that she stood up to go, but Kolb grabbed her daughter by the arms and legs and kissed her wrist.
After Nigh and her child escaped the octogenarian, she notified shop security.
Authorities said that Kolb’s interaction with Nigh was captured on security video, and Kolb was identified via his credit card transaction and social media, where another lady recounted a similar scenario.
‘Shook, rocked and shocked to the core,’ Nigh wrote on social media. ‘A man at the Port Orange Walmart offered me 200k for my child today. Grabbed her by the arm and kissed her wrist. My 8 year old little girl!!!! We are pressing charges.’
‘Be careful out there women and men with your daughters, wives and the all the women in your life, please!’
When a reporter knocked on Kolb’s house after he was released on bail, the married man with a pronounced Austrian accent said that he did not know why he was in court.
Standing behind him, his wife begged him to close the door.
Kolb told police he had no recollection of making the offers or touching the youngsters in both instances.
According to authorities, Kolb is prohibited from having any interaction with minors and must be accompanied while visiting major retail outlets.
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