Mother Accused of Shooting Girl For $1 Bet

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (AP) -- A 28-year-old woman shot her 8-year-old daughter in the thigh with a BB gun to win a $1 bet with her boyfriend, according to authorities.

Angelique R. Vandeburg was charged with one felony count of intentional child abuse. She made an initial court appearance Friday and was released on a $5,000 signature bond

The girl told police the shot hurt so much that she couldn't walk, according to a criminal complaint.

Her mother and the mother's boyfriend had been drinking heavily before the boyfriend offered Vandeburg $1 and handed her the gun, prosecutors quoted the girl as saying.

The complaint provided the following account of the incident:

Investigators began looking into the incident Wednesday after a school counselor reported it to police. The girl had been shot three or four days earlier, on April 26 or 27, but a circular bruise remained visible on her thigh, the counselor said.

The girl said the shooting occurred in her mother's bedroom after her mother had 10 to 12 beers.

The boyfriend bet the mother $1 she wouldn't shoot the girl. The mother responded by taking the gun and shooting the girl, who was wearing three pairs of pants. The BB deflected off her leg and struck her 7-year-old brother, who wasn't injured.

The boyfriend then grabbed the gun, ran from the house and drove away.

Vandeburg told her daughter to keep quiet about the incident, saying it was a "family thing" and that the mother would go to jail if the girl told.

The complaint quoted Vandeburg as telling a police detective the girl was lying to get her in trouble. She said the girl suffered the bruise three weeks earlier when she fell from her bike and hit her leg on the handlebar.

well, i guess those parents are better than the parents that force their kids to goto church 3 times a week..................... :D

What is this world coming to when you can't shoot your three pant-wearing kid in the thigh with a b-b gun.

and what kind of puss kid says a bb hurts so bad she couldn't walk when she's wearing 3 pairs of pants?

It's a family thang the girl just don't understand. That reminds me of the days of playing war with my brother and his friends, we never used bb guns, pellet guns and rocks with a slingshot is what we used. Never wore three pair of jeans though.

Me and some friends used to play that with pellet guns. Wewore layers of clothing but not three pairs of pant's. We used pump air pistols and CO2 pistols.

i have been playing paintball for over 12 years now and thats how we settle family business and loving it. Hurts worse than a BB gun and on top of that flight is right, that girl is a pussy. Now if it were a grenade laucher to the leg then maybe i would understand not being able to walk, but a BB gun, are you kidding me?

Hell yeah the good ol days.