When the Portland Girl Scouts thought they'd sold thousands of boxes of cookies it seemed like the sweetest sale ever, until it all went sour.
"Somebody placed a fake order on us and they didn't know that they hurt our feelings a lot," said 8-year-old Girl Scout Erin Donnelly.
The two troops were left holding the bag, or rather the boxes, when the $24,000 corporate order turned out to be a hoax.
"I was the one who had actually ended up taking the order, so this was a situation I took personally," said troop mother Jennifer Reed.
The order was apparently placed by a woman who worked at a local company and whom many of the troop mothers knew, so there was no reason to doubt the sale until it came time to collect.
"I contacted the mother's company and they said, 'we have no idea what's going on,'" Reed said. "It was a really, really unfortunate event."
But when word got out the Girl Scouts had been duped, an emergency sale at their Portland headquarters was announced. And hundreds of supporters showed up.
By the end of the day, half the inventory had been cleared out to the tune of $12,000.
For the girls, the experience is a big life lesson. Just another way the Girl Scouts has helped them grow.
"For every one person that has bad intentions there are hundreds more with good intentions and good hearts that are here to help you," said Sarah Miller, Director of Communications for Girl Scouts of Oregon.
The Girl Scouts say no money changed hands so no charges will be filed. There will be another sale next week to hopefully sell the remaining boxes.
