WICKER PARK — Forcing children to sell candy on the streets alone is child endangerment, police told residents at a community meeting on Wednesday night after a Wicker Park mom brought up concerns over one child's safety.
"We have a case with DCFS involving two people driving [the kids] around. The adults were arrested for child endangerment," Sgt. Adam Henkels, who runs the Shakespeare District CAPS office, told about a half-dozen residents at the meeting in the Wicker Park field house at 1425 N. Damen Ave.
The Wicker Park mom said she saw a boy who could not have been more than 8 boarding the CTA No. 50 Damen bus around 7:30 p.m. on a weeknight with "wads of cash" in one hand and boxes of candy in the other.
"I don't care if they are selling candy. I don't like seeing them alone with no parents," the mom said.
After the meeting, another attendee called a DNAinfo reporter on the way home to say that she saw two young boys trying to sell candy to customers inside a Levi's store at 1552 N. Milwaukee Ave. around 8 p.m.
"I asked him how old he is, and he said 9. I told him I have a nephew who is also 9 and asked, 'Don't you want to be playing Lego and video games?'" the woman said.
The woman said the boy told her that his aunt and uncle were driving around and watching him, and he could not go home for the night until he sells all the candy in the box he had been carrying around since the afternoon.
Though the boy claimed he was selling the candy to raise money for his basketball team, he later admitted to the woman that he is not on a basketball team.
He was unable to show proof of the fundraiser or a paper with a school or coach's phone number.
Henkels told residents that it is not illegal to raise funds for a sports team or school nonprofit, as long as there is proof the group exists.
"Often they go out after 6 p.m., so when people call the number, no one is there to pick up," Henkels said.
Veronica Resa, a spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Family Services, said the state agency "would like the public to know that if you are concerned a child is being abuse or neglected, and this includes human trafficking, call the DCFS 24-hour hotline. 1-800-25-ABUSE."
If you think a child is in immediate danger, call 911 and the DCFS hotline, she said.
Nicole Cheltenham, manager of a retail store in the 1400 block of North Milwaukee Avenue, said that two children came into the store on Wednesday to try to sell candy.
"I don't care that they are out selling. I care that their behavior is getting increasingly aggressive, and now they are messing with people inside of businesses," Cheltenham said.
Cheltenham also went to Walgreens to run errands and came across the candy sellers again on Wednesday.
"One of them just seriously blocked me from entering the Walgreens at Milwaukee and Wood. When I finally got past this kid after saying "No thank you, excuse me," he swore at me and got angry. I just don't know what else to do. Walgreens has been notified that these kids were doing this today," Cheltenham posted on her Facebook page.
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month.
In a news release, DCFS Director George Sheldon said the goal of the prevention month is “to encourage communities to play an active role in preventing child abuse and neglect by getting involved to stop it and to report it."
