Like most 3-year-olds, little Derion is shy sometimes, and mischievous other times.
He was especially mischievous last Friday morning at the Discount Wine and Liquor store on East 163rd Street in the Bronx.
Surveillance video showed that while his mother is at the counter, Derion reached right into her pocket and grabbed an envelope filled with money.
His mother, who wishes only to be identified as Caroline, told Eyewitness News that there was $500 in that envelope.
It was money she says she had just withdrawn from an ATM.
But a man in a dark sweatshirt approached and noticed the money in Derion's hands.
As Derion tries to show the man his toy trumpet, the man ignored him, thinking he'll buy something, and then reconsiders.
Little Derion was holding the money, and the video showed the suspect shuffle to the back of the store, and then quietly swipe the cash, and then shoved his way outside.
"When you reached into your pocket and you realized," Eyewitness News said.
"The money was gone? My day was shattered, because $500? Gone for a minute? No," Caroline said.
Caroline says she didn't even know the money was gone because Derion never said a word.
"At least cry to draw my attention, no he didn't. He just let him take it from his hands," Caroline said.
She says she was angry at her son, at first, but it's hard to stay mad at your 3-year-old.
What does make her mad is that the suspect got away so easily.
"He takes off like a shot the minute he leaves the store. We see what he looks like, he's running, he did something, he definitely did something wrong, of course," said Rashad Algazali, Liquor store owner.
"He's a horrible, terrible person, robbing $500 from a baby like this? No," Caroline said.
The suspect is described as a dark-skinned male in his early 30s, approximately 5'9" and weighing about 240 pounds.
Anyone with information in regards to this grand larceny is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS.
