No More Moe? Joliet Cops Ticket Man Selling Masks, Sanitizers

JOLIET, IL — One day after Joliet Patch reported that a man from Chicago's south suburbs was selling face masks, gloves and hand sanitizers out of the back of his van at an empty West Jefferson Street parking lot, Joliet police officers showed up in force and gave him a ticket.

Police told Patch the 25-year-old man was given a $150 compliance ticket for soliciting without a city permit. The Joliet Police Department ticketed the Justice man at 11:18 a.m. on Thursday in the 1400 block of Jefferson Street, police officials said.

On Wednesday, Joliet Patch published a story about the face masks being sold out of the back of a van in front of the empty Aaron's furniture and appliances store.

A large banner displayed across the side of the van read: "FACE MASK SOLD HERE."

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Joliet Patch's editor stopped by the parking lot and interviewed the entrepreneur around 2 p.m. Wednesday. The man told Patch his name is Moe and he's from Bridgeview.

Moe told Patch he's been in Joliet the past two days and said he expected to be back at the empty Aaron's parking lot again Thursday from around 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Moe said he was selling face masks, gloves and hand sanitizers. Some of his face masks were 10 for $10, he said. His designer face masks were two for $15, and he sold a box of gloves for $10. A bottle of hand sanitizer was $7, and a large bottle of hand sanitizer was $20, he said.

On Wednesday afternoon, Moe had a steady walk up crowd of a half dozen customers at a time. "Today is not bad," he remarked.

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