Sunny Naqvi, the Girl Who Cried Wolf

Even as a child, Summer “Sunny” Sundas Naqvi wasn’t like most other kids, her cousins told The Juggernaut. She was sweet, funny, and wicked smart. She’d make you laugh, but you could never tell exactly what she was thinking. Since then, they say the 28-year-old burglarized a cousin’s home when she was a teen, police say she filed a false police report, ex-boyfriends say she terrorized them, and one professor says she made a false assault allegation that lost him his job. 

Now, Sunny, a U.S. citizen, has made national headlines after claiming ICE and Dodge County Jail detained her for over 30 hours after she landed in Chicago’s O’Hare airport on March 5. Her sister and mother said this happened after Sundas returned from a work trip with SAP along with five peers, and they quickly mobilized the press and local politicians. 

But, then, worrying details started to emerge: SAP said she was never an employee, two sheriffs say she was never held in the cities she said she was, and DHS vehemently denied the detention. The Juggernaut spoke to Sunny’s cousins, lawyer, a criminologist, Customs and Border Protection, a sheriff’s office, O’Hare airport officials, Sunny’s college, The Chicago Tribune, and more to uncover a far stickier web. Who exactly is Sunny Naqvi, and why do so many people think she isn’t telling the truth?