Downtown Hoopeston was booming Saturday, with people visiting for the city’s sesquicentennial and an autograph signing at Bricks and Ivy Sports memorabilia. It was during all that that an armed robbery occurred at 112 Wine and Coffee Shoppe. Matthew M. Hofer, 38, of Hoopeston, is being held on $150,000 bond in connection with the crime, at 112 E. Main St. The robbery was announced on social media.
The business reopened Sunday morning. Hofer was paroled from the Illinois Department of Corrections on April 5, 2021, after he was incarcerated on October 1, 2020 on a three-year sentence for theft of property valued at $500-$10,000, a Class 3 felony. In 2006, he was sentenced in Iroquois County to two years and 6 months for aggravated battery, also a Class 3 offense. That sentence was discharged. The wine and coffee shop was the second business to be hit by crime in a week. The Pump was broken into on June 27. Video gaming machines were damaged in that incident.
