STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.

Unfounded

Did 32 armed Venezuelans with motorcycles trespass and take over a Chicago apartment complex on September 2, 2024? No, that's not true: The only evidence cited online for the claim is a recording of a Chicago police dispatcher relaying what was told to her by a caller, the kind of report that can be made without corroboration or evidence by anyone with a phone, calling from almost anywhere. Chicago police officers responded to the call and no report was generated.

The claim appeared on X in a post (archived here) by Libs of TikTok on September 2, 2024. The post was captioned:

BREAKING: A group of 32 armed Venezualans took over an apartment building in Chicago tonight. Here's the audio of the 911 dispatch call.

First they did this in Aurora, CO and now Chicago? Which city will be next?

This invasion happened on Kamala's watch.

This is how the post appeared on X at the time of writing:

(Source: X screenshot taken on Wed Sep 04 15:51:36 2024 UTC)

Lead Stories contacted the Chicago Police Department Office of Communications by email on September 4, 2024. Chicago Police spokesperson Peggy Benz responded with this statement:

Officers responded to a call of service. The call was then given a Miscellaneous Incident code ('coded out') of 4P (Disturbance, Noise - Other Police Service) and no report was generated. Again, we do not confirm any individual's status.

The post contains an embedded 57-second-long audio recording that was posted by WindyCity Weather and News (archived here) at 10:30 p.m. on September 2, 2024, after Spot News reported it in a post on X at 8:48 p.m. (archived here). The archived Chicago dispatch recording from 8:15:05 p.m. CDT Zone 7 District 3 was sourced from a Chicago Police radio channel on a 30- to 35-minute delay, hosted by Broadcastify.com. Such a recording proves only what dispatchers told patrol officers, not that dispatchers received a reliable report. In the first 19 seconds of this recording the dispatcher says:

Unit [inaudible] Someone with a gun 6124 South King Drive. Caller says 32 Venezuelans are trespassing the building, showing guns in the courtyard and they have motorcycles in the courtyard as well, all stairwells are filled, nothing further.

Several hours later, at 11:30 p.m. on September 2, 2024, Armando L. Sanchez, a photojournalist with the Chicago Tribune, posted on X (archived here) a photo he took outside the apartments on South Martin Luther King Drive, documenting police on the scene.

Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims about Venezuelan gangs can be found here.