An 11-year-old Arkansas girl is back home after taking thousands of dollars in cash from her grandmother, hailing a taxi cab and going on a trip to see a boy about 800 miles away by car in Jacksonville, Florida, according to police.
The girl, who was reported missing on Dec. 5 from her home in Bryant, southwest of Little Rock, was tracked down and found when the cab was nearing Atlanta, more than 500 miles away, Bryant Police said, adding that police in Georgia aided in the search.
"While listening anxiously on the phone, we were able to take a sigh of relief when we heard the Georgia State Trooper say, 'we have the girl in custody and she is safe'," police said in a statement on Thursday.
The taxi driver told the girl, who was not identified, it would cost $2,500 to drive to Jacksonville and the girl gave him $1,300 up front. She said she would pay the remainder on arrival, according to the statement.
"It was later found out the she had taken a large amount from her grandmother, whom she was staying with at the time," it said.
Police said they found the girl by searching her telephone records and have been questioning the cab company involved.
Her family told local TV broadcaster KARK that she had been communicating with the boy since meeting him two years ago on a family vacation.
"You have the rest of your life to punish her. You just want to hug her and just love her because you got her back and that's what's important," her father, Brent Waller, told KARK.
Bad Girl 
100
500
100
