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Girl Scouts hoax rallies town to buy pranked troops' cookies

Girl Scouts hoax left a Portland troop with 6,000 extra boxes of cookies, the result of an Internet prank order. But the community rallied to buy the cookeis and help the troop recover from the Girl Scouts hoax. 

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Mike Staugaitis/AP/File
Cases of Thin Mints Girl Scout cookies are stacked five high and three deep along the wall of Lourdes' cafeteria in Coal Township, Pa., last month. Pranked troops in Portland, Ore., saw their communitry rally around them after a costly Girl Scouts hoax left them with thousands of boxes of unordered cookies.
  • By The Associated Press

| Portland, Ore.

Generous people gathered in Portland, Ore., this weekend to help some Girl Scout troops recover from a costly cookie hoax.

The Oregonian (http://is.gd/bsWeVE) reports the Scouts were fooled by an order of 6,000 boxes that turned out to be fraudulent. But they didn't find out until after the cookies were ordered.

On Saturday, they sold 3,000 boxes and learned some tough business lessons and some good things about the kindness of their community.

The fraudulent order had been placed via e-mail, from an address belonging to an acquaintance of a troop leader. The e-mailer turned out to be a girl who used her mother's e-mail address to pull the prank.

Portland Girl Scouts will try to sell the remaining 3,000 or so boxes of cookies next Saturday, at the council headquarters. They're also selling online.

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