A Cary man was jailed in Will County on charges accusing him of traveling to Target in Shorewood to meet who he thought was a 15-year-old girl to engage in unlawful sexual conduct.
About 4:25 p.m. Tuesday, Jacob Schendel, 24, of the 6400 block of Rawson Bridge Road was booked into the Will County jail on felony charges of traveling to meet a minor and solicitation to meet a minor.
On Nov. 22, Judge Ken Zelazo signed a $50,000 bond warrant for Schendel’s arrest.
On Wednesday, Schendel was not able to make his court appearance because he was in quarantine as part of a COVID-19 protocol at the jail, court records show.
Schendel is scheduled for an arraignment Jan. 26.
Prosecutors alleged in a criminal complaint that on May 3, Schendel traveled to the 1111 Brook Forest Ave. Target for the “purposes of engaging in any sex offenses … or to otherwise engage in other unlawful sexual conduct” with a person believed by him to be a child younger than 17.
The child was actually the persona of then-19-year-old Shane Divis, a member of the the group Save Our Siblings, according to prosecutors.
Shorewood Deputy Police Chief Jason Barten said police initially received a call from a person at Target who reported a disturbance involving a group of men yelling and screaming at another man about trying to meet a 15-year-old girl for a sexual encounter.
The Save Our Siblings group later contacted Shorewood police and provided video of the incident, Barten said.
The group posted the video May 8 on YouTube under the title, “Union Welder Pedophile!!”
On the same day as the incident, Schendel had been ticketed by Illinois State Police on a charge of speeding 26 to 34 mph over the speed limit. He pleaded guilty to the offense on June 3 and was sentenced to a year of court supervision, court records show.
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