COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A Portage Park man has been charged with trying to lure a 14-year-old girl to his apartment.
According to prosecutors, the girl had just stepped off a CTA bus and was walking home in the 4200 block of North Cicero Avenue when 32-year-old Jacob Hamid began following her about 5:30 p.m. Monday.
Hamid asked for the girl's phone number and said "they could get to know each other" better at his apartment, Cook County State's Attorney Erin Antonietti said.
The girl — who told police she'd seen Hamid at least two other times — ducked into a nearby McDonald's at 4320 N. Cicero Ave. and called her mother from inside the women's bathroom, prosecutors said.
Hamid told the girl he wasn't allowed inside that McDonald's and peered through the restaurant's windows waiting for the girl to return, prosecutors said. It's not clear why Hamid believed he wasn't allowed inside.
When the girl's grandfather arrived to pick her up, Hamid left. Police issued a community alert and were able to arrest Hamid about 9:20 p.m. the following day, court records show.
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Hamid, of the 4300 block of North Cicero Avenue, is charged with child luring. The girl was able to identify him in a photo array.
According to his public defender, Hamid attended Roosevelt High School and previously worked for Wal-Mart.
Cook County Judge Laura Sullivan set bail at $100,000.
