Area 51 is the Air Force facility best known for UFO conspiracies and alien encounters, and it isn’t a surprise that the location attracts a lot of curious minds. Curiosity killed two cats this time, as two Dutch YouTube vloggers ended up in jail for trespassing the Nevada National Security Site outside Area 51, with the two vloggers chalking up the trespassing allegations as a misunderstanding. The Washington Post has the details:
Ties Granzier, 20, and Govert Sweep, 21, were each charged with trespassing and held at the Nye County Detention Center, roughly 250 miles north of Las Vegas, according to the Nye County Sheriff’s Office.
Despite seeing a sign barring entry, Sweep said he interpreted the warning as applying to nonresidents, and thought they could ask a live person if they might enter anyway. Though both of the men read, write and speak English, Sweep chalked up their alleged trespass to a simple misunderstanding.
The NNSS website describes the Mercury location as a “premier outdoor, indoor, and underground national laboratory” located in a “remote, highly secure area of southern Nevada.” While scheduled tours are open to the public, foreign nationals are required to submit advance paperwork to visit — and all visitors are barred from bringing recording devices such as cameras, cellphones and laptops.
image credit: via wikimedia commons