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Chicago Police Suspect Man Got Sick When Eating Mealworms At DNC Delegate Breakfast

Mealworm 01 Pengo

Wikimedia Commons/Public/ Pengo, CC BY-SA 3.0

Ilan Hulkower Contributor
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Chicago police suspect that at least one individual at a Democratic National Convention (DNC) breakfast in a hotel Wednesday got sick after consuming mealworms, The Associated Press (AP) reported.

Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said that the ongoing joint investigation between the police and the FBI picked up clues that people put mealworms on the tables at the event, the outlet reported. Police said that multiple female suspects entered the hotel hosting the event for DNC delegates, and started to place “unknown objects” on the tables before leaving the premises, The AP reported. (RELATED: ‘Racists Aren’t Welcome Here!’: DNC Mob Led By Hamas Supporter Tries To Intimidate Vivek Ramaswamy)

“I’m not sure that those were maggots,” Snelling said. “There was sawdust, so they were probably mealworms. They look the same. But that’s still under investigation.”

One individual who consumed the food at the event was treated by medical personnel and released, The AP reported. The hotel said that the “disruption” was brief and that their staff “acted immediately to clean and sanitize the area, ensuring that the event could continue without further incident,” the outlet noted.

Mealworms are brownish “worm-like larvae of darkling beetles” that are “an important food source for many animals” like birds, spiders, rodents, fish, reptiles and other insects.

Pro-Palestinian protesters previously released live crickets and mealworms into the lobby of an apartment complex where the COO of Columbia University on Aug. 8. The vandals left a message reading, “Did you enjoy our present? Did it make you uncomfortable? What you felt was incomparable to the pain you made Columbia students feel when you signed off on their brutalization because they stood against the genocide of Palestinian.”

In July, pro-Palestinian protesters used the same tactic at The Watergate Hotel to disrupt the Israeli diplomatic delegation’s stay. “Our top priority is the safety and well-being of our guests and staff. We took the necessary steps to ensure the property has been sanitized and is now operating as normal,” a spokesperson for the hotel said at the time.