Crook Uses Fake Money to Buy iPhone, Pal Pulls Fake Gun After Deal: Cops

(Pictured from left to right) Jaylin Turner, Bryant Smith and Ellis Whittington

An Orland Park man trying to sell an iPhone 5 to a Joliet man he met through Facebook was paid in counterfeit cash and had a fake gun pulled on him, police said.

The Orland Park man brought his father along to rendezvous with the buyer outside the Denny’s at the Orland Square Mall. He struck the deal for the iPhone “on a Facebook page that allows you to list items to sell,” police said.

Three men pulled up in a Mazda 6. The price for the phone was supposed to be for $175, police said. A man in the back seat of the Mazda reportedly handed over $170 for it, and the two $50s and one $20 were obviously fake.

The Mazda rolled away as the Orland man and his father followed in hopes of getting the phone back. The Orland man cut off the Mazda with his Honda Accord but gave way when he suspected the other car was going to ram his vehicle.

The Mazda later stopped and when the Accord pulled alongside, the backseat passenger handed the phone through his window. As the Mazda drove off again, a man sitting in the front passenger seat pulled what appeared to be a handgun and pointed it at the Honda, the father reportedly told police.

Officers located and stopped the Mazda, police said, and took the driver and two passengers into custody. After the traffic stop, officers found a black replica Sig Sauer sp2022 in a black backpack in the back seat, police said.

The driver, 20-year-old Jaylin Turner of Justice, was charged with reckless conduct. The man in the back seat, Bryant Smith, 19, of Joliet, was charged with forgery. The man riding in front, 20-year-old Ellis Whittington of Justice, was charged with aggravated assault.

Turner and Whittington were given court dates and released. Smith was held for bond court.