The plan was foolproof: get paid for collecting and recycling cans. This 12-year-old’s idea had a simple premise but had the potential to make her a millionaire. Her theory was put into practice, and soon the cash started flowing. She was unaware that she was being watched closely.
It’s hard to believe that a 7th grader thought up such an elaborate plan. The whole thing sounded absurd at first. It was a big idea for a 12-year-old, which led to her door being knocked down by the authorities with handcuffs prepared less than a year later.
As far as Pasadena residents were concerned, the Brightons were like any other family. Their modest house was on the edge of the cul-de-sac, and they had four children between 17 and 12 years old. James, their father, was always proud. A boy from the streets of Boyle Heights, he was constantly threatened with being dragged under by life.
A good life had been built for him through ambition and hard work, including marrying the love of his life and starting a family. His four children included Mary, the firstborn; Kyle, the second; and twins Alan and Christy, both 12 years old. Despite James’s insistence that he did not have any favorites among his children, Christy was clearly his favorite. He and Christy gravitated toward each other, which was obvious to those who knew them. The same drive and focus had driven her father to Pasadena from Boyle Heights.
The family ended up with a whopping $7.6 million from recycling. Who would have thought? One Saturday morning, Christy noticed just how dirty their kitchen was. The eldest siblings, Mary and Kyle, and her mom, Elsa, were busy cleaning up. Alan and Christy frequently took out the garbage from three trash bins that were filled with waste. As they dried one of the bins out, Alan observed, “This is a lot of garbage.” What his twin was thinking was beyond him.
“Yes,” Christy replied calmly. It puzzled her why her mom and elder siblings separated the trash rather than putting it all in one bin.
“Mary and Kyle are separating trash because some is to be recycled,” Alan said, causing his sister to chuckle. Christy was sparked by that alone. Recycling was nothing new to Christy; however, she hadn’t really seen it in this light before. That night, she spent three hours reading everything she could about recycling. Her discovery surprised her. Several areas of the ocean twice as large as Texas are filled with trash. The burning of waste was also destroying the environment. Rivers, lakes, and vast swaths of land are being polluted every day. Recycling was one of the most effective ways to reduce these adverse effects.
This was not the only discovery the 12-year-old made. In Christy’s state, recycling can be used to make money. It wasn’t difficult for her young mind to comprehend the process. Even so, she called her elder sister and asked a few questions. Mary was surprised by her sister’s newfound interest in recycling, but she was quick to explain exactly how it worked.
When someone buys a plastic or aluminum bottle in California, they must settle an extra 5 to 10 cents in California Redemption Value. The consumer can get this money back by returning these items to a recycling center anywhere in the state. By the end of her research, the 12-year-old had half of what she’d need to start her money-making empire.
Christy couldn’t sleep that night. She thought about all the recyclable items that usually left her home every Saturday morning. If a single can or bottle guaranteed her between 5 to 10 cents, she’d only need about 20 of them to make a dollar. While that amount might not seem like a lot, it was a fortune for a 12-year-old like Christy. Christy woke up at 4:00 a.m. the following day for the first time in her young life.
She hurried to the family computer to continue with her research. She’d already made a mental list of what she’d buy with her recycling money. She wanted a few dresses and dolls for herself, a video game or two for Kyle and Alan, and a makeup kit for Mary. She wanted to take her mom and dad for a picnic and show them that she could pay for stuff too. She had no clue what she was about to stumble upon.
Christy’s mind was racing with ideas of what to buy, but she had to get her operation underway first. The best way to do this would be to convince either Kyle or Mary to drive her around Pasadena while she visited the different recycling centers. By 9:00 a.m., she, Kyle, and Mary were visiting recycling centers all over the city. Each recycling center worker was kind enough to let Christy experience the processes found in the centers, from sorting and packing to transporting. They explained how everything worked.
For the next week, Christy started a collecting campaign all over her neighborhood. Her parents were proud to see her applying herself in this new endeavor. By the end of the first week, Christy had enough recyclable trash to fill the trunk of her sister’s car. After wrapping the cans properly, the two drove them to the recycling center in Pasadena.
Mary was floored when the center handed Christy $120 for her haul. That amount was enough to buy Christy one of her coveted dolls and take the family out for pizza. Everyone thought she’d put aside this obsession, but in reality, she’d only just begun. By now, her twin Alan, who had seen how big of a gold mine this was, had hopped on the bandwagon. Together, the two brought in $200 and a lot of commendations from the neighborhood at the end of the week.
The twins continued collecting cash, but as the days passed, an idea hit Christy—an idea that would result in her untimely downfall. The 12-year-old had noticed that she and her brother spent too much time collecting trash weekly. Although the money was good, the job was taxing. Add this to them having to attend school, and the whole problem sprouted more problems. Now Christy wondered if she could find a way to eliminate the problem. It wasn’t long before she stumbled upon something grand.
Christy and Alan continued collecting recyclables throughout their neighborhood for the next few weeks, but Christy wouldn’t use her money on dolls or dresses. Each time they’d get paid, she’d give Alan and a few of their friends who jumped on the recycling bandwagon a cut. Her family thought she was saving it for something, when in truth, she was using it for something that would land everyone in court.
A few weeks in, Christy asked Mary if she could help her set up an online bank account. “What is it for?” Mary asked.
“Nothing much,” Christy answered. “I just want to save the cash I’m making.”
“Do you want a kitty bank?” Mary suggested, but her sister wanted something more grand. She asked Mary to open an account in her own name and give her the credentials. For a 12-year-old, Christy could do little to no damage with a new bank account. Knowing that she would be safe, Mary opened the least taxing account that would also result in the least trouble if anything were to go wrong. But she didn’t hand her sister the login credentials. Instead, she helped Christy link the account to an online platform from which the recycling centers would be depositing the recycling cash. Afterward, she completely forgot about it.
But a few months in, she realized Christy was sweating where she sat, giggling as she stared at the family computer. “Christy, are you okay?” Mary asked, and Christy pushed the computer screen to face her. Mary almost jumped back at what she saw. Her lips parted and her brows drew up.
“How?” she asked. The screen showed the balance on the bank account she opened. How had any of this gotten past the bank? How could they allow this? “Is it a bug?” Mary asked, and Christy shook her head.
“It has been growing ever since you gave me the account,” she said. The amount on the screen read $7.6 million, which Mary couldn’t believe. She ran to call their parents, and the whole family sat with Christy for the next hour trying to figure out what had happened between the time they’d left her to collect cans and now. But the authorities would beat them to the punch. The bank had already contacted the authorities following the activities on the account. They’d realized the massive amounts of money pouring in every month.
Before the family could get to the bottom of everything, the whole neighborhood lit up in red and blue lights. The authorities knocked on the door. Panic washed over Christy as she peered outside to see police cars approaching the house. Being as young as she was, she didn’t know that what she’d done was against the law. But now it was too late.
The authorities questioned her about their operation and the large sums of money she had accumulated. After five hours of prodding, Christy finally came clean. She explained that she’d set up connections all over the state for the last few months. Using the initial money she’d started saving, she’d gotten in touch with an individual from Arizona and was posing as a grown-up. She’d buy recyclables from him, and he’d have them transported to chosen warehouses in California. Christy would then have a few associates collect the goods and take them to different recycling centers, who would then pay by sending the sum to her account. She’d give everyone involved a cut from this pool and save the rest.
Everyone was dumbfounded when they heard the 12-year-old explain everything. It was even more shocking that she’d done all this without leaving the house. Not only that, but she admitted to using her elder sister’s photos and videos as her own. She’d been convinced that all this was okay and that she wasn’t hurting anyone.
However, Christy had crossed several legal lines that landed her entire family in court. The complex legal process took months to complete, and Christy’s family received fines and penalties for its daughter’s actions. The experience had been a harsh lesson in the complexities of the adult world, and Christy vowed never to take shortcuts or engage in ventures without proper guidance.
