A quiet early-morning walk home outside a Bank of America branch in Chicago turned into a frightening ordeal for a 26-year-old man on January 13, police say. Just after midnight, the man had stepped out of the bank at 430 West Roosevelt Road when a stranger approached him asking for food money. What followed was a bizarre and frightening robbery that ended with the suspect using the victim’s own phone to translate threats into Spanish.
The suspect, identified by police as 25-year-old Shelly Bahari, didn’t take “no” for an answer when the victim said he had no cash. According to a prosecutor’s detention petition, Bahari kept following the man and demanded $200. The victim tried to walk away, but Bahari didn’t back off.
At one point, Bahari put a hand inside his jacket pocket and made a gesture that made the victim fear he had a weapon. That gesture, combined with the persistent demands, ramped up the fear on a chilly Chicago street.
In an unusual twist, prosecutors say Bahari used the victim’s phone to open the Google Translate app and type out a threat in Spanish: “Give me $200, or I’ll kill you.” When that didn’t work, he revised his pitch on the same phone, telling the victim “Okay, $40. I will leave y’all alone for good, amigo. Don’t play with me or else y’all go die in Chicago. This is my city. I run it.”
Faced with that terrifying message, the victim handed over $40 in $10 bills and sprinted straight to the nearby White Palace Grill. Inside, he called for help and described what had just happened to Chicago police.
Officers responded quickly and found Bahari close by, matching the victim’s description. They also recovered $40 in $10 bills from him. Bahari was taken into custody and now faces a charge of aggravated robbery in connection with the incident.
The case has drawn attention not just for its strange details — like the use of translation technology in a threat — but for how quickly a normal late-night errand turned into a moment of real danger.
Now, prosecutors and police await court proceedings while the community absorbs yet another example of crime in the South Loop. For the victim, the encounter is one he said he won’t forget anytime soon.
