Dougherty County Sheriff's Capt. Craig Dodd says Regina Thompson's ex-boyfriend paid the money over two years. Dodd says the ex-boyfriend even had pictures made at the girl's birthday party.
The 38-year-old Thompson has been charged with five counts of theft. Police say she was keeping her friend's child when she concocted the scheme.
The girl's mother, Lastraga McCloud, didn't know anything about the plot. Police say it began to unravel when the girl, now five, began to talk more and told Thompson's ex-boyfriend, Joseph Golden, that he wasn't her father.
Thompson did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
