Of the scores of people charged with looting-related crimes last year, Arron Neal is one of the more memorable. While waves of looters pillaged stores along the Magnificent Mile on August 10, 2020, Neal was a couple of blocks away, live-streaming his dismantling of a grocery store ATM.
Investigators released the streaming video and asked for help identifying the three men who tried to slam, hammer, and pry their way into the machine. Neal was charged with burglary by the end of the week.
He pleaded guilty to the charge in July, and Judge Diana Kenworthy gave him a gift: a sentence of two years “second chance probation” and 30 hours of community service.
So, where is Arron Neal today? He’s being held without bail in the Cook County jail.
Less than two months after Kenworthy gave him that “second chance,” police allegedly found Neal carrying a loaded handgun with an extended ammunition magazine during a traffic stop in the Loop.
Cops pulled the car over on the 200 block of West Harrison early on August 28 and allegedly saw an open bottle of D’usse cognac on the rear floorboard next to his feet.
Officers asked everyone in the car to step out and noticed that Neal, 21, was trying to conceal a prominent bulge in his front waistband, prosecutors said. It was the gun, they say. Neal also had a bottle containing 19 suspected Xanax pills, prosecutors said.
Neal allegedly told police he found the gun and decided to keep it.
Judge Mary Marubio set bail in the new case at $10,000, but she also ordered Neal held without bail temporarily until Kenworthy had a chance to review his probation.
Kenworthy reviewed it and kept Neal in jail without bail. He’s still there. His next court date is November 29.
During his bond court appearance on August 28, an assistant public defender said he was expecting his first child.
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