3-Year-Old N.J. Girl Gets Jury Duty Letter — and Mom Asks, 'Did Somebody Steal Her Identity?'

"It’s a total mess, and we still have no idea, nor can anybody tell me, how they got her name," said the girl's mom, Laura Behrmann

Most children are thrilled when they receive a letter in the mail — but that certainly wasn't the case for one New Jersey toddler, who recently got a message about being called to federal jury duty.

Laura Behrmann told WCBS that her daughter Madison recently received a letter from the U.S. District Court, saying that her name had been selected by random from the voter's registration list to serve on jury duty.

The only problem? Madison is 3 years old and has never been registered to vote, according to WCBS.

The United States Courts currently requires those who serve on jury duty to be at least 18, registered as a United States citizen, adequately proficient in English and have no disqualifying mental or physical condition, among other mandates.

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Cyber security expert Ian Marlow told WCBS that children and adults are usually targeted in the same way when it comes to identity theft.

"One of the very first steps that [parents] should do is contact a credit agency… and do something called locking their credit," Marlow said, going on to urge parents to regularly run credit reports on their children, as they would do for themselves, to ensure that their information is protected.

Other measures to protect kids from being a victim of identity theft include asking questions before providing someone with their social security number, protecting documents with personal information and deleting personal information before disposing of a computer or cell phone, the FTC states.

Parents who discover that someone is using their child's personal information should report the matter to the FTC immediately.

As the family waits to have Madison's name removed from the jury duty list, her mom is also finding humor in the odd situation.

"She might be really good at it, I don't know," Behrmann joked to WCBS. "But she will need an adult to take her to the bathroom."

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