11 teen boys charged with luring men into ambush using dating app in Mount Prospect
Eleven teenage boys are accused of beating two men using a dating app to lure them into an ambush in suburban Mount Prospect.
Ten 17-year-old boys and a 16-year-old are facing felony charges for aggravated battery, mob action and criminal damage to property, according to Mount Prospect Police.
The teenagers — who were following a social media trend — were charged for allegedly attacking two men just before 10 p.m. on July 8, police said.
In the first attack, a 41-year-old man arrived at 606 W. Northwest Hwy. when the group of boys ambushed him and beat him in the parking lot, police said. The teenagers damaged his vehicle before he was able to get inside and drive off.
Minutes later, a 23-year-old man had arranged to meet a person in the 900 block of West Lincoln Street when he was allegedly ambushed and beaten by the teenagers. The man got into his vehicle and drove off but had to pull over in the 300 block of See-Gwun Avenue when he realized they had slashed his tires.
Detectives were able to identify some of the teenagers with video footage from the attack at 606 W. Northwest Hwy. One of the teenagers was also charged with two counts of hate crime for allegedly yelling racial and derogatory terms during the attack, police said.
"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 in a statement.