On Feb. 20, 2024, X user @SubxNews posted (archived) a video of a purported Chicago Police Department dispatch audio recording that said 100 migrants had attacked security guards at a Home Depot store. According to the post, the incident occurred on the same day around 2:00 p.m. local time at 200 W. 87th St. in Chicago, Illinois. The store is labeled "Dan Ryan #1914" on the official Home Depot website.
The next day, TikTok user @Worldhervoice shared (archived) the same audio recording with the caption, "MEDIA SILENT. SHOCK REPORT: 911 call reveals over 100 MIGRANTS attacking security officers at Chicago Home Depot." As of this writing, this TikTok video had received more than 778,000 views.
In the days that followed, other online users virally shared the same audio recording, with some of them saying that the news media had been "silent." At least one user reported not understanding why "no one cares" about the purported massive assault on security guards at the store.
Despite all this, the truth is that the incident was a hoax. A manager on duty for the Home Depot store where the attack purportedly occurred told Snopes by phone that the story was nothing more than a "rumor." Further, a spokesperson for the office of communications for the Chicago Police Department confirmed by email that there was a call for service placed, but said they were not notified by any responding officers and no report was generated in their system. Snopes also reached out to Home Depot's corporate office for further comment but had not yet receive a response at the time of publication.
Here's just how viral this rumor was: Multiple users on Facebook discussed the purported incident. Instagram user @chicagoghetto3 (archived) reposted the TikTok video from @worldhervoice. On X, the claim was posted by the prominent accounts @ChuckCallesto (archived), @WallStreetApes (archived) and others. YouTube users Starkey Farmstead, JLR INVESTIGATES!, Route Rethinker, Gpac from chiraq 87 and Rising Crime News also shared the same rumor, as did other users on TikTok. Additionally, we found the story being reposted on LinkedIn (archived), by MJTruth on Rumble (archived), on the bodybuilding.com forums, on BitChute.com and on Reddit's r/walkaway subreddit (archived).
It's unclear if the police dispatch audio recording was authentic. The post from X user @SubxNews claimed that the audio was broadcast just after 2:04 p.m. local time. The post even included a link to listen to archived police dispatch clips. However, no matching clip existed on the date and time mentioned by this user.
In one other development pertaining to this rumor, on Feb. 27, a YouTube user named Ford Boss Me said in a new video that he had deleted his original video (one that Snopes did not review) and wanted to correct the record – something that the vast majority of the users who shared the false report did not responsibly do. In his new video, he said he believed the police dispatch audio recording had been generated by AI and that it wasn't real. He also told subscribers that he would be looking to improve the way he reports news in the future.
"From now on, if it's not coming from a major news source or something like that where they have verified data, then I will not be reporting on it anymore, because I feel bad about just reporting on that," the user said. "I deleted it. It had like 140,000 views, that video. And I deleted it. Because I felt bad. It's not a true story."
For further reading on the subject of illegal immigration ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, we previously reported that it was true that, as of January 2024, there had been more than 7.2 million reported migrant encounters with border officials at the U.S.-Mexico border during President Joe Biden's administration, a number that was higher than the individual populations of 36 states.