CHICAGO — It happened while on the way to brunch in Lakeview, while walking the dog in West Town and even while heading to a wedding in Ukrainian Village.
Dozens of Chicagoans have reported being attacked by someone throwing eggs from a moving truck. Reports of the attacks have grown so frequent on social media that a Facebook group has formed to spread information on the attacks and seek to find the attacker. And they may have done just that.
The Facebook group, Chicago Egg Hunters, includes 730 members, many of whom said they have been attacked or were the intended targets of an egging. In the group, 82 people have reported being attacked, seeing the truck in question or seeing broken eggs on the ground or on buildings.
Most of the reported cases have happened on the North Side.
One of the group’s members is Andersonville resident Melissa Benge, who was with a group of friends in Lakeview last month when eggs started flying.
“We were just outside talking,” Benge said. “Out of the corner of my eye I saw something go flying. I felt a substance all over my face, my shirt.”
Four people in Benge’s group were hit by eggs, including one person hit in their head, she said. When she looked up, she noticed a white truck with red graffiti on its side driving away.
A few days later, Benge posted about the incident in the Facebook group Chicago Queer Exchange. That’s where she saw other people mentioning similar attacks.
Benge then found the Chicago Egg Hunters group. She reached out to Ald. Maria Hadden (49th) about the incident and the other reported egg attacks.
Hadden said she reached out and spoke to Ald. Tom Tunney’s 44th Ward Office about the issue, as many of some of the incidents have happened in his Lakeview ward. Hadden also forwarded information on the attacks to local police officials, she said.
The Police Department is aware of the egg attacks and is encouraging victims to report such incidents at cpdtip.com, a spokesperson said.
“We are aware of several incidents in which victims have reported to police that an unknown offender(s) in a vehicle threw an egg at them,” police spokesperson Tom Ahern said. “No serious injuries were reported.”
In many of the cases reported on the Facebook page, a white truck with red graffiti is mentioned as the source of the attacks. Photos and video of the truck in question have circulated widely on the Facebook group. Many of the victims have been women.
Nicole McCarthy was out walking her dog with her partner in West Town in late April when she said she felt a “stinging pain in my chest.” She saw smashed egg on the ground and looked up to see the white truck driving away.
McCarthy said she knew this wasn’t a one-off incident, since she saw a women get egged in West Town a few weeks prior.
“I was pretty shocked by the whole thing but was just grateful not to have been hit in the face,” McCarthy said. “I was pretty paranoid any time I saw a white van for the next couple of months though.”
Through reports like McCarthy’s and images of the truck, members of Chicago Egg Hunters believe they have found at least the company that owns the truck, if not the actual driver.
Moshe Tamssot, a West Loop resident who founded the egg hunters group, tracked information about the white truck in question and connected it to a Southwest Side warehouse.
A manager for the warehouse told the Chicago Sun-Times that the truck in question belongs to their company. Block Club has not independently verified the claims about the company.
Tamssot said his group will remain active as long as the attacks keep happening.
“We want to create a climate where they feel like we’re watching,” he said. “We just want them to stop.”
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