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Man holds mom hostage in eBay dispute, police say

CHICAGO -- A mother-son disagreement concerning eBay led the teen to threaten the woman with a machete, and later hold her hostage suburban Chicago police station parking lot, according to police.

CBS Chicago -- citing the Sun-Times News Wire -- reported that 19-year-old Aaron Perez allegedly threatened his mother and held her against her will because she refused to buy him $4,000 worth of basketball cards and a costume mask on the online auction site.

"This is one of the most bizarre domestic situations I have ever seen in my 30 years at the Riverside (Illinois) Police Department," Chief Thomas Weitzel said.

According to a police statement, the incident reportedly started about 7:30 p.m. Saturday at a home when the teen asked his mother to use her eBay account to buy basketball cards and a costume mask from a popular movie that were being bid at $4,000.

She refused because she didn't have the money, police said.

That's when Perez said, "Things are gonna go my way," and robbed his mother of $130 in cash while armed with a machete, police claim.

He then held her hostage in her bedroom, forcing her to sign in to her eBay account and give him her phone so he could buy the items, authorities allege. At some point, he even sliced up the bed linens to convince his mother he would harm her if she didn't obey, police allege.

Ultimately, police said, the woman was able to run to a car parked in the driveway. The son followed, but she convinced him to drop the machete and come with her to a relative's home, CBS Chicago reported.

Instead, however, she reportedly drove to the nearby police station in North Riverside, making multiple 911 calls on the way, and at one point telling dispatchers she was being held hostage in a vehicle in the police station parking lot.

North Riverside officers managed to arrest the 19-year-old Perez without incident.

"The mother, who was in fear of her life the entire time this incident took place, acted as calm as she could and I credit her with her actions that led to the arrest of her son," Chief Weitzel said in a statement.

Police later recovered the shredded sheets, machete and stolen cash and phone, the statement said.

Perez is charged with felony counts of kidnapping, armed robbery, unlawful restraint and intimidation, as well as misdemeanor counts of aggravated assault with a weapon and unlawful use of a weapon.

Monday he was ordered held on a $50,000 bond Monday.

"To think that this entire incident took place over the purchase of a movie mask on eBay and other eBay purchases that the son wanted to make is simply astonishing," said the Chief of Police in Riverside, where the entire episode began.

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