Does a video on Instagram Threads show Hells Angels and other motorcycle clubs going to Aurora, Colorado, to fight a Venezuelan gang after violence was reported in August 2024? No, that's not true: The video was first posted to TikTok in November 2022 -- nearly two years before media reported gang violence in Aurora. The video's original poster clarified on social media that the clip was recorded during a charity event in Pennsylvania, which Lead Stories confirmed.
A version of the claim appeared in a video on Instagram Threads on September 1, 2024, (archived here) with a caption that read:
The Hell's Angels, The outlaws, and the Mongols on their way to Aurora Colorado, to confront the Venezuelan Gangs for taking over the apartment complex to protect the citizens of Aurora Colorado...
Here is how the video appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram Threads screenshot taken Mon Sept 2 11:43:00 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories conducted a Google image search for "5PW57," the license plate number shown at the beginning of the clip above (archived here), which resulted in this video posted to TikTok on September 2, 2024 (archived here). At the 11-second mark, the TikTok username "@pysssh" is shown.
Next, we went to the TikTok account credited with posting the original video (archived here). We found that the clip has been online since at least November 6, 2022, when it was posted (archived here) to TikTok with a text overlay that read, "Republicans waiting for the polls to open Nov 8th VOTE RED!!!" A caption that accompanied the post read:
Republicans ROARING to go vite Nov 8th!!!
Here is how that post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken Tue Sept 3 16:04:50 2024 UTC)
The same account that posted the video above also published the same video on September 1, 2024, (archived here) with a different text overlay that read:
This is the original video of the Tucker Toy Run Charity Event, not the Hells Angels heading to Aurora Co. But I do wish it was true🇺🇸.
Lead Stories next looked for other clues in the video to indicate when or where it was recorded, including the screenshot below, which showed a banner reading "SIDECARDOG RILEY."
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken Tue Sept 3 16:07:59 2024 UTC)
Because many of the license plates shown in the video were from Pennsylvania, we conducted another Google keyword search (archived here). We found an account under that same name had posted to Facebook (archived here) about attending the 2022 Tuckers Toy Run charity event. Sidecardog Riley was also featured in a photo slideshow of the event published by Lehigh Valley Press (archived here).
Lead Stories contacted the Sidecardog Riley Facebook page for further confirmation about the event. We will update this article if we receive a response.
The 12th annual Tucker's Toy Run and Raffle occurred on November 5, 2022, in Northampton, Pennsylvania, according to flyers Lead Stories found on online forums (archived here and here) and a Facebook event page (archived here). In a phone interview with Lead Stories on September 3, 2024, Rick Nauman, founder and president of LVCB (archived here), told Lead Stories that the video showed the organization's annual toy drive, a memorial charity event that raises money for various causes.
Next, Lead Stories cross-referenced the video shared on TikTok with others posted online during Tucker's Toy Run, including one posted to YouTube in 2020. At the 11-second mark (archived here), the same brown building with four garage doors can be seen in the clip:
(Source: Lead Stories compilation of TikTok and YouTube videos taken Tue Sept 3 18:04:17 2024 UTC)
The video on Instagram Threads came after local media outlets had reported (archived here) on August 28, 2024, violence affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) having occurred (archived here) at an apartment complex in Aurora.
As Lead Stories previously reported, in a post shared on Facebook on August 28, 2024, (archived here) the Aurora Police Department confirmed that it was aware of TdA operating in Aurora but believed incidents to be isolated. The department also clarified (archived here) in a video posted to X on August 31, 2024, that "gang members are not taking over" the complex.
In the days following the release of the Aurora video, many social media users have posted videos of motorcycle events to falsely claim that Hell's Angels were en route to Colorado, including a video that originated in São Paulo, Brazil, and a post that used scenes from a video posted to YouTube by the Mongols Motorcycle 14 years ago.
Other Lead Stories fact checks about the Hells Angels can be found here.
