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11 teenage boys in Illinois accused of luring men with dating app, beating them

Eleven teenage boys in Illinois have been charged with several felonies for allegedly using an online dating app to lure unsuspecting men to meetups and beating them, police said.

Ten 17-year-old boys, and one 16-year-old boy, have been charged with multiple felonies, including aggravated battery, mob action and criminal damage to property, the Mount Prospect Police Department said in a news release. One of the 17-year-olds is facing an additional two felony counts of a hate crime, according to the department.

The teenagers were arrested and charged between Nov. 11 and Nov. 20, 2024, police said.

Mount Prospect police's investigation found that some of the teenage suspects got the idea to lure the men through a viral social media trend they saw online, according to the department.

“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,” Police Chief Michael Eterno said in the release.

Mount Prospect is a village in Cook County that is about 24 miles away from Chicago.

Police: Teenagers lured men through dating app, beat them

Police reported the first incident occurred on July 8 at 9:45 p.m. and involved a 41-year-old man. The man reported to Mount Prospect police that he had been beaten earlier in the evening by a group of teenagers in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven on West Northwest Highway, police said.

The man told police that he used an online dating app to arrange to meet someone at the convenience store, according to the department. Once he arrived, the man said he was approached by a group of teenage boys who "confronted him verbally and battered him." The police also said the teenagers had damaged the man's vehicle.

According to the department, the man managed to leave the location in the damaged vehicle as the teenagers attempted to follow him in their cars.

The second incident occurred on the same day around 9:54 p.m., and it involved a 23-year-old man allegedly being lured and beaten by the group of teenage boys, police said. Like the initial report, the man told police he also used an online dating app to arrange to meet someone but he encountered the teenagers who battered him, according to the department.

As the man was being beaten, one of the teenagers slashed the tires on his vehicle, according to the department. Police said the man got back into his vehicle and drove away, but he eventually stopped the car once he realized what had happened to his wheels. The man then approached a home and asked them to call 911, and when emergency responders arrived they took him to a hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

Police identified teenage boys through video surveillance

Mount Prospect police detectives were able to identify some of the teenage suspects through video surveillance footage of the incident at the 7-Eleven, the department said. A lengthy investigation determined that 11 total teenagers took part in one or both incidents, police said.

The investigation also determined that the 17-year-old boy charged with two counts of committing a hate crime yelled a racial slur and another derogatory term during one of the incidents, according to police.

Once the Cook County States Attorney's Office approved the charges, all the juvenile offenders willingly turned themselves in between Nov. 11 and Nov. 20, police said. They were taken to the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center in Chicago, according to the department. It is unclear if they are still in custody.

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