Chicago — A Dixmoor man is charged with robbing six people he allegedly met in Chicago after arranging a phone sales through Facebook Marketplace at Christmastime.
Judge David Kelly held Paris Hall, 19, without bail during a bail hearing on Thursday.
Prosecutors said three adults and their two young children traveled to meet Hall in the 2500 block of West 62nd Street on December 16 to buy Hall’s phone. The parties made the arrangements through Facebook, and Hall’s picture was allegedly the profile photo on the seller’s account.
One of the adults gave Hall half the money for the phone, then waited to receive the device, but Hall demanded all of the cash and pulled out a gun, prosecutors said. He allegedly got away with $800.
He is charged with three counts of armed robbery for that meeting.
Prosecutors last month charged him with three separate armed robberies that also occurred in December.
On December 4, a juvenile and his father met with Hall in the same parking lot to sell a phone. Hall grabbed the phone from the boy’s hand and ran into an alley, prosecutors said. When the child and his father ran into the alley, they allegedly found Hall pointing a gun at them.
Similar robberies occurred on December 15 and December 20, prosecutors said.
Chicago police recommend completing online transactions in public places, and have suggested using the lobbies of police stations to conduct the sales of small items.
