CHICAGO—A man accused of stealing cash by posing as a charity solicitor and hijacking the Zelle accounts of people who agreed to donate has been sentenced to two years of “second chance probation.”
Last spring, prosecutors said Kyri Walker, 21, and Lamar Smith, 24, worked as a team on the Magnificent Mile, commandeering banking apps and transferring large sums of money without permission outside the Nike Store, 669 North Michigan.
On March 20, a 20-year-old Gold Coast resident told police that two men took his phone as he accessed his Chase app outside the Nike Store. Smith blocked the victim from taking his phone back while Walker transferred $500 from the victim’s bank account, a CPD report said.
Smith and Walker worked with a third man as they targeted a 37-year-old Uptown man at the same location on April 6, prosecutors claimed. The victim told the police he was walking when three men asked him for donations. He agreed to transfer $5 to their cause, but officials said Walker snatched away his phone after he unlocked the Bank of America app. Walker Zelled $2,000 from the man’s account to an account with a woman’s name, according to his CPD arrest report.
The second victim told police that he continued to receive text messages from the robbers, “taunting” him for being suckered.
According to the report, the victims identified Walker in photo line-ups. Detectives forwarded his information to cops in the Lakeview-based Town Hall (19th) District because similar crimes had been reported along the Clark Street bar strip in Wrigleyville. Officers assigned to the area for Cubs game arrested Walker weeks later.
Walker struck a good deal with prosecutors: They dropped four counts of robbery, the most serious charges he faced, and he pleaded guilty to two counts of felony theft by deception.
Judge Shelley Sutker-Dermer handed Walker the “second-chance probation” sentence, ordering him to get a GED and perform 40 hours of community service, according to court records. Walker will not have a conviction on his record and will be eligible to have the matter expunged if he completes probation.
Smith continues to fight the charges filed against him.
