Chicago experienced a peculiar and troubling incident earlier this week at a hotel event during the Democratic National Convention, where mealworms may have been involved in the reported sickness of at least one attendee, stated Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling on Thursday.
The ongoing investigation by the Chicago police and the FBI is honing in on the likelihood that mealworms were deliberately placed on tables at the Fairmont Chicago. “I’m not sure that those were maggots,” Snelling remarked about the potential insects found. “There was sawdust, so they were probably mealworms. They look the same. But that’s still under investigation.”
Mealworms, the larval form of the mealworm beetle, possess wormlike bodies that range from yellow to brown. In contrast, maggots, often mistaken for mealworms, are the larval stage of flies and are characterized by their white to transparent soft bodies.
The incident unfolded early Wednesday morning, when several women, described as suspects by the police, entered the Fairmont Chicago during a delegate breakfast at around 6:45 a.m. These individuals proceeded to place unidentified objects onto tables laden with food before making their exit.
Consequently, one person consumed the tainted food and required medical attention but was treated and released on-site, according to the Chicago police. The Fairmont Hotel, confirming the disturbance, emphasized in a statement that their staff “acted immediately to clean and sanitize the area, ensuring that the event could continue without further incident.”
This bizarre episode echoes a similar activist protest earlier in the year, where mealworms, maggots, and crickets were released at a Washington, D.C., hotel in opposition to the Gaza conflict, targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s accommodations.
