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| Left to right: Lawerance Hall; Tishawn Holliday; and Tia Jennings | CPD; Google |
Three adults have been arrested and charged in connection with the armed robbery of a Christian Dior boutique near the Magnificent Mile this week after they agreed to meet with an undercover officer to sell a stolen Dior purse for $9,000, according to police and court records. A juvenile girl has also been charged in the case, according to a police department source.
One of the accused persons is currently on probation after he pleaded guilty in a robbery-related incident at the Magnificent Mile Saks Fifth Avenue store this summer.
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| The $34,000 purse. | OfferUp |
Around 1:30 p.m. on October 8th, four teenage women or girls entered the Christian Dior store at 931 North Rush Street. They spread out across the store, began grabbing purses, and then ran for the exit. When a 30-year-old Dior employee tried to stop one of the women, the offender threatened the worker with pepper spray, police said.
Dior management estimated that more than $67,000 worth of merchandise was stolen by the women, including a $34,000 purse that is the only one of its kind in the United States.
The girls ran to a black Ford Mustang occupied by two men that was idling outside. After the Mustang sped away, the girls continued walking southbound on Rush, police said.
Investigators this week found the one-of-a-kind purse being offered for sale on a mobile app and arranged for a meeting to make the purchase in the 400 block of West Roosevelt Road on Thursday morning.
Police say 19-year-old Lawerance Hall, 19-year-old Tia Jennings, and 20-year-old Tishawn Holliday met them and displayed the stolen $34,000 purse that was to be sold.
All three were taken into custody.
A review of postings on the application OfferUp this afternoon revealed a $34,000 Christian Dior purse being offered for $15,000 by a member named “TyMoneyy.”
“Brand new bag. Still have dustbag. Everything,” the ad said.
Hall and Holliday are charged with felony theft of $10,000 to $100,000. Jennings is charged with Class X felony armed robbery and was also held on a suburban arrest warrant.
It turns out that Hall is on probation for a case involving the robbery of Saks Fifth Avenue at 700 North Michigan Avenue last November.
Prosecutors said Hall was positively identified as one member of a shoplifting mob that stole $3,850 worth of scarfs from the store and then battered a store security officer who tried to stop them on the sidewalk.
When cops arrestee Hall outside his Oakland neighborhood home a few days later, he was carrying a loaded 40-caliber handgun with a laser attachment and an extended magazine in his waistband, police said.
This summer, Hall pleaded guilty to aggravated battery of a merchant and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. He was sentenced to two years probation. Charges of robbery and retail theft over $300 were dropped in the plea deal.
Before Hall was arrested at the Dior purse meet-up, police recording devices captured audio of him stating that he was to be paid $100 for driving Hall and Holliday to sell the $34,000 purse, according to prosecutors.
Hall is being held in lieu of $10,000 bail on the Dior case and is held without bail on a violation of probation filing in the Saks Fifth Avenue case, according to court records.
Bail for Jennings was set at $10,000. No bail information was immediately available for Holliday. The three are due back in court on Thursday. No further information was available about the juvenile because their case is shielded by law.
