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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Grand Rapids police are aware of panhandlers who’ve been appearing at several locations around the city this week soliciting donations, claiming they need money for funeral expenses for a child in their family who died just days ago, but FOX 17 has learned that the child in their photo was murdered in Spain in 2018.
Over the past week, the group has been spotted at major intersections throughout the Grand Rapids area and Holland.
They walk along the road, occasionally stepping in between cars, holding an empty milk jug to solicit donations.
The word "FUNERAL" reads across the top of one of their signs.
It continues bluntly, "TONI 7 YEARS OLD — DIED OF CANCER — PLEASE ANYTHING HELP — GOD BLESS."
As FOX 17 watched a group of two, a middle-aged woman and a young man, at the corner of Eastern and 28th Street Thursday morning, several people rolled down their windows to hand over cash.