A Florida man was apprehended on Thursday after authorities said he offered to purchase a woman’s daughter for $100,000 at a grocery store. According to Port Orange Police Department, the same man was arrested in 2018 for allegedly offering to buy a woman’s child for $200,000.
According to authorities, this latest incident unfolded at a Winn-Dixie grocery store on Aug. 16, 2022, in Port Orange, a city in Volusia County. Hellmuth Kolb, a registered sex offender, offered a mother a sum of $100,000.00 in exchange for her young daughter, police said in a Facebook post.
When the mother declined Kolb’s offer, saying her daughter is not for sale, he became more insistent on attempting to purchase the girl in the grocery store. The concerned mother finally reported the disturbing incident to the police and Kolb was subsequently apprehended. According to investigators, Kolb is currently on probation for similar issues, and is not allowed to have any contact with minor children, police said.
Kolb was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail.
In 2018, FOX 35 News reported that Kolb, who is originally from Austria, was apprehended after he was accused of approaching a woman and offering to purchase her eight-year-old daughter for $200,000 inside a Walmart store. According to that report, Kolb allegedly made a similar offer to another woman and child a month prior.
In 2019, Kolb pleaded no contest to false imprisonment, according to Florida’s online sex offender registry.
According to online records, Kolb was arrested in 2018 and charged with battery after authorities said he touched an underage girl’s arm inside a Walmart store at Port Orange. Kolb, after inappropriately touching the girl, said her skin was soft “like ice cream.” In that incident, the mother quickly walked her daughter away, and the child’s dad confronted Kolb, according to the arrest report.