Boy, 7, tries to rob shop at gunpoint

A seven-year-old boy faces charges in the US after he tried to rob a video shop at gunpoint.

Shop manager Vicky McLaughlin wasn't sure whether the 4ft tall youngster was serious or playing a game.

She called the police who eventually managed to grab the gun which turned out to be a fake, reports the Baltimore Sun.

But, when questioned by police, the boy insisted he had been trying to hold up the shop in Annapolis, Maryland.

The boy, who police did not identify, was charged with attempted armed robbery and released to his mother.

Ms McLaughlin said the gun looked real and the boy had been dressed all in black, with a sweat shirt hood pulled tightly around his head.

"We're still in disbelief that somebody attempted to rob us - and it was a seven-year-old," she said.

In Britain the boy would not be charged with any crime as the age of criminality is ten.

But the law is different in the US and the child could face a range of penalties, depending on whether he has a criminal record.

"It's definitely not taken as a joke when someone points a gun and announces a robbery," said Officer Hal Dalton, a police spokesman. "It could have gotten him killed."


there's a connection in there someplace.....