Group of teenagers charged in connection with two beatings in Mt. Prospect related to online dating app
Mount Prospect police said a group of teenagers, using an online dating app to lure them to locations in the village, beat two men and damaged their vehicles.
Police said 11 juveniles were arrested between Nov. 11 and Nov. 20. They are charged for offenses that occurred on the evening of July 8.
One 16-year-old boy and 10 17-year-old boys face felony charges that include aggravated battery, criminal damage to property, mob action and, in one case where a suspect had used a racial term and another derogatory term, a hate crime.
Police said investigators learned they had hatched the scheme through a viral social media trend they saw online.
Police said one incident occurred in the parking lot of a business on the 600 block of West Northwest Highway. A 41-year-old man told police he had arranged a meeting through an online dating app. But instead he was approached by a group of teenage boys, who confronted him verbally and battered him.
The group also damaged his vehicle, he said.
The man said he fled in the vehicle and eventually was able to elude the boys, who followed him in their vehicles.
That same evening, a 23-year-old man told police he had arranged a meeting through an online dating app on the 900 block of West Lincoln Street. There, he said, he was approached by a group of teenage boys, who confronted him verbally and battered him.
While this was happening, he told police, one of the teenagers slashed the tires on his vehicle.
The man went to a nearby home and asked someone to call 911. He was taken by Mount Prospect firefighters to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Mount Prospect police detectives were able to locate video surveillance footage from the incident at 606 W. Northwest Highway and identify some of the teenagers.
Police ultimately identified 11 suspects following an extensive investigation. The teenagers, who willingly turned themselves in, were taken to the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center in Chicago.
“We are asking parents to take these incidents as an opportunity to talk with their teenage children about the seriousness of actively participating in these types of trends they see on social media,” Mount Prospect police Chief Michael Eterno said.
