Description

Several months ago, I was approached by three large men in a parking lot in Chicago while loading groceries into my car. They asked for my attention and seemed cordial; one started talking about how his son was killed by gun violence and that they were going around trying to raise money for his funeral. I felt cornered, as I was alone at the time and still loading bags of groceries into my car. They were also blocking my path to the driver’s side door of my car. It was dark and cold, and I was in the far corner of the parking lot so there were very few people around. I felt pressured, so I offered to donate $**. They claimed that due to some legal reasons they were not allowed to accept cash, and so they asked me for my card.

They also claimed that they needed to check something sent to my phone and one of them took my phone from me - I had been holding and using my phone at the time, and the man plucked it out of my hands upon asking the question. I did not want to give up my unlocked phone, but I felt unsafe and cornered and did not object as I did not know what they might do to me if I made a fuss. They also handed me a clipboard with a sheet for me to fill in my info during this time, and held my phone away from me so I could not see what they were doing on it. I attempted to look at what they were doing on my phone multiple times but they held it just out of my view. After making the charge, they gave me back my card and phone and left. As soon as I got in my car, I checked the charges on my card and saw that there was a charge for $5000 to PP*CRISPY COX SHOP.