Prosecutors say that a AAA roadside assistance worker sent himself nude photos from the phone of a woman whose car had broken down in Lake County.
Lake and McHenry County Scanner is withholding the name of the worker, a 22-year-old Wheeling man, because the case has since been dropped against him.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Emma Smoler said that a woman called AAA on December 21 for a flat tire.
The 22-year-old man, who works for AAA, came out and determined the woman’s car needed to be towed.
The woman’s phone was out of battery and the cigarette lighter in the woman’s car was broken, Smoler said during a bond hearing.
The worker agreed to charge the woman’s phone for her while they waited for the tow truck.
Smoler said the worker sat in his AAA truck and plugged the victim’s phone into the charger while the victim sat inside her car.
The worker told the woman he had to leave approximately 30 minutes later and gave her the phone back.
The victim noticed that messages had been sent from her phone to a number that she did not recognize.
The messages included 20 nude photos that the woman had of herself on her phone, Smoler said.
She called the unknown number and the worker answered. She then called the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
The worker came back to the scene with his boss while deputies were at the scene with the woman.
The worker gave police permission to look through his phone, at which point they found deleted messages with the nude photos of the victim.
Smoler said the worker told deputies his phone was synced to the car and those specific images “somehow” got sent to his phone.
The victim and the worker do not know each other and she did not give the man consent to go through her phone, Smoler said.
The worker was charged with one count of non-consensual dissemination of a sexual image, which is a Class 4 felony.
A judge allowed the worker to be released from custody on a personal recognizance bond.
Prosecutors, the same day the charges were filed, dismissed the case for unknown reasons.