Children Robbed By Cheerleader Appearing on Today Show Friday Morning

ATLANTA, GA -- It's the local crime that's striking a national chord.

Three Cobb County families left Atlanta Thursday evening for a Friday morning appearance on NBC's Today Show in New York City, where the children were invited to talk about their Independence Day run-in with a 17 year old cheerleader who robbed them of the money they were earning from selling July Fourth items on a table at the neighborhood pool.

"We're just amazed at the response we're getting," said Joe Green, the father of two of the children, as the families waited to board their plane at Hartsfield Jackson Airport.

Not that they were seeking publicity.

"We didn't ask for this to happen," Green said, adding that he and the other parents have been trying to make it a learning experience for their children, who were smiling and laughing, excited about their flight and NYC visit.

"Absolutely, it's a big lesson for them. They're learning that there are some good people in this world," who have been swamping the families with messages of support and sympathy. "Also they learned there are some bad people in this world, and it goes to show that you can't commit something like this and get away with it."

It was on Saturday when Joe and Lisa Green's children, Sophie, 9, and Sydney, 11, and their friends, were selling caps and t-shirts at the Saint Charles Square subdivision's pool party on Sandy Plains Road.

Green's children and the other kids came up with the idea on their own. It was their way of trying to help Green, who is self-employed and whose business has been off.

They'd raised $147 when suddenly a teenage girl grabbed their cash box and ran.

"I can't believe somebody would have that thought process," Green said, "to walk into our [neighborhood] pool after speaking to me, wait for me to turn away and walk away from the table, and then steal the money from our children. And she had the audacity to do that in front of all the parents, too."

One of the children, Patrick Cobler, who turned 7 on Wednesday, helped police identify her. Police arrested 17 year old Chelsea Steele, a cheerleader and rising senior at Sprayberry High School. She is now back home on a $5,000 bond. Her attorney, Mike Moran, told 11Alive News that Steele admits what she did and that "she is extremely remorseful about what has happened."

Detectives are deciding whether they will also charge three other teens who police say were in the getaway car.

"I hope we get our money back," said 11 year old Meghan Cobler, "and they get some big punishment because they should have known better, to steal from children."

"We're lucky we have great kids," said Meghan's and Patrick's father, Rick Cobler, who spoke proudly of all the children's entrepreneurial drive to come up with a way to help where they could.

"I just hope that they [the national TV viewers] see that, you know, here's a bunch of kids, America's future, and we're going to be all right. Things are going to turn around in this economy and some day these are the kids that are going to be leading us."

Eleven year old Sydney Green hopes she and the other children can get a point across during their Today Show interview that is important to them.

"Number One, I hope for teenagers to see that this is not the 'normal thing.' If you heard, the attorney [for Chelsea Steele] said that teenagers will be teenagers. That's not a normal teenager.... They think that they're not going to get caught. But she did."

"I think it was mean to do it," Patrick Cobler said emphatically.

Moran told 11Alive News on Tuesday that he met with Steele at the jail for several hours Monday night, just prior to her bonding out, and that she's mortified by what she's done.

"She is just torn up about what happened," Moran told 11 Alive News, "She'd like to express to the children who were involved in this and had to experience it, as well as their parents, that she is extremely sorry for what happened and wants an opportunity down the road to say that to their faces."

Cobb County School spokesman Jay Dillon said the system's policy states that students cannot be suspended or expelled for incidents that happen off of school property.

But he added that Cobb's School Board recently passed a stiffer penalty which could ban them from extracurricular activities, such as cheerleading, which are considered a privilege and not a right.