With only a week to go until the widely memed Area 51 raid,??? ??????? ???? ???? ???? ??? ???? ????? ?????? two hopefuls were already arrested for trying to storm the Air Force base. Unsurprisingly, they're both vloggers.
Eager to "see them aliens" — as the original Facebook event put it — Dutch YouTubers Ties Granzier, 20, and Govert Sweep, 21, ignored the "Do Not Enter" signs and entered anyway.
According to a video posted by the Nye County Sheriff's Office, the two were caught when the deputies responded to a report of "foreign national trespassers" at Area 51, which is a National Security Site. Granzier and Sweep's car was parked at a gate approximately three miles into the property.
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"Both individuals told deputies that they speak, write, and read English," the statement continued. "They said that they saw the 'No Trespassing' signs at the Mercury highway entrance to the Nevada National Security Site, but they wanted to look at the facility. Granzier advised deputies that he is a YouTuber."
Their car was packed with a laptop, cameras, and a drone. After Granzier and Sweep consented to a search, deputies found footage of Area 51.
Both YouTubers were arrested and booked into the Nye County jail and were charged with trespassing. If caught trespassing on a military base, violators can receive a $500 fine, a prison sentence up to six months, or both.
In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Granzier wrote: "It has always been a dream to be here, now to crazy recordings of crazy adventures and ... area 51 ..."
He appears to have removed any mention of Area 51 from the caption, but his supports are flooding his comments with #FreeTie.
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Although more than two million Facebook users responded to the event, the U.S. government warned against actually attempting to storm the military base on Sept. 20.
"The U.S. Air Force is aware of the Facebook post," an Air Force spokesperson told Insider. "Any attempt to illegally access military installations or military training areas is dangerous."
Ahead of the estimated thousands of eager alien enthusiasts flooding the area, the Nevada Department of Transportation removed the iconic "Extraterrestrial Highway" sign, according to a Fox 5 report on Thursday.
Instead of risking the prison sentence or worse, consider going to the corresponding music festival, Alienstock. The Facebook event's original creator backed out and called it a "potential humanitarian disaster," but the festival is still reported to proceed as planned.
The moral of this story: Don't storm Area 51, even if you're a YouTuber.