SHEBOYGAN - A 28-year-old woman shot her 8-year-old daughter in the thigh with a BB gun to win a $1 bet with her boyfriend, according to authorities.

Angelique R. Vandeburg was charged with one felony count of intentional child abuse. She made an initial court appearance Friday and was released on a $5,000 signature bond

The girl told police the shot hurt so much that she couldn't walk, according to a criminal complaint.

Her mother and the mother's boyfriend had been drinking heavily before the boyfriend offered Vandeburg $1 and handed her the gun, prosecutors quoted the girl as saying.

The complaint provided the following account of the incident:

Investigators began looking into the incident Wednesday after a school counselor reported it to police. The girl had been shot three or four days earlier, on April 26 or 27, but a circular bruise remained visible on her thigh, the counselor said.

The girl said the shooting occurred in her mother's bedroom after her mother had 10 to 12 beers.

The boyfriend bet the mother $1 she wouldn't shoot the girl. The mother responded by taking the gun and shooting the girl, who was wearing three pairs of pants. The BB deflected off her leg and struck her 7-year-old brother, who wasn't injured.

The boyfriend then grabbed the gun, ran from the house and drove away.

Vandeburg told her daughter to keep quiet about the incident, saying it was a "family thing" and that the mother would go to jail if the girl told.

The complaint quoted Vandeburg as telling a police detective the girl was lying to get her in trouble. She said the girl suffered the bruise three weeks earlier when she fell from her bike and hit her leg on the handlebar.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)