A Chicago man allegedly looking to make a quick buck from a high-dollar clothing item stolen during riots in the city earlier in August has been charged with theft.
Melvin Banks, 29, was accused of selling a $2,700 sweater, which prosecutors alleged belonged to the Brunello Cucinelli boutique. An employee at the boutique saw the sweater advertised on the mobile app OfferUp earlier this week and alerted local law enforcement to the listing.
Undercover detectives contacted the seller through the app and negotiated an $800 price for the sweater. Undercover police then met the seller at a strip mall between North and Western avenues in the major Midwestern hub.
Cook County Judge John Lyke Jr. joked that he didn’t know what such an expensive piece of clothing felt like because it is “a little too rich” for him.
“I don’t know how a $2,000 sweater feels, but it must be immaculate and feels very, very soft, I’m certain,” Lyke Jr. said during Banks’s arraignment on Thursday.
Banks denied he stole the sweater, reportedly telling police that he was asleep the night of the riots in early August following a violent exchange between Chicago law enforcement and a 20-year-old suspect who exchanged fire with police. Banks told law enforcement that his girlfriend had given him the sweater, although interviews with the girlfriend have brought Banks’s timeline into question.
Several retail areas of Chicago, including the Gold Coast district and the Magnificent Mile, were raided by looters who took advantage of chaos seen throughout several major cities in the United States following the death of George Floyd in late May.
Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who defended heavily armed protection surrounding her house in the city on Thursday, stood watch as local officials raised the bridges connecting downtown Chicago to the outer neighborhoods in an attempt to ward off looting and rioting.
Hundreds of vandals were recorded breaking into stores and causing mayhem throughout the city on Aug. 9.
