PORT ORANGE, Fla. – An 81-year-old man has been arrested after police said he offered money to a woman at a Walmart to buy her 8-year-old daughter.
Hellmuth Kolb is facing charges of battery and false imprisonment, officials said.
The incident occurred Friday when Tracy Nigh was sitting with her daughter on a bench at a Walmart in Port Orange, according to police. Nigh told investigators that Kolb approached them and asked if she was married.
"It seemed like a friendly conversation," Nigh told WKMG. "He didn't seem like a threat at first."
Kolb then began asking about Nigh's daughter, and if she would take money in exchange for the 8 year old, the mother told police. That's when Nigh got up to leave. The pair didn't make it far before Kolb grabbed the girl's arm, pulled her toward him and kissed her wrist, police said.
Nigh took her daughter and immediately left the area, notifying Walmart security on the way out, according to an arrest report. Deputies said that surveillance video showed Kolb grabbing the girl and forcibly restraining her against her will.
Nigh posted about the incident on Facebook:
Shook, rocked and shocked to the core... A man at the Port Orange Walmart offered me 200k for my child today. Grabbed...
Posted by Tracy McGrath Nigh on Friday, September 28, 2018
Deputies identified Kolb through his credit card transaction and social media, where another woman described a similar incident with the man, WKMG reports.
Kolb was arrested and booked into the Volusia County Jail on Saturday. After being released on bond, Kolb told WKMG he doesn't know why he is being charged.