A pair of YouTubers from the Netherlands were arrested for trespassing on federal property in Nevada near Area 51 on Sept. 10.
The YouTubers were arrested after being found approximately three miles into the Nevada National Security Site. KTNV Las Vegas got an exclusive jailhouse interview with one of the vloggers a day after his arrest.
“We didn’t have any intention to storm it because we leave one day before the actual storming dates, and we just wanted … to go there,” Govert Sweep told the ABC affiliate from the Nye County Detention Center. “If I wasn’t a Youtuber … I’m just here for trespassing and I think it’s not normal for such a small thing.”
Sweep has over 300 thousand subscribers on Youtube. His companion, Ties Granzier, who has over 740 thousand subscribers, was not interviewed. Both men were in Nevada a little over a week before an expected comical event on Facebook was to take place: “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us.”
“I posted it on like June 27th and it was kind of a joke,” said Matty Roberts, the creator of the page, in an interview with 8 NOW. “And then it waited for like three days, like 40 people, and then it just completely took off out of nowhere.
“It’s pretty wild.”
As of Sept. 14, over 2 million people had marked themselves as “Going” and 1.5 million people were “Interested.”
Sweep said they did not intend to trespass, but the police report published on Facebook disputes that.
“Both individuals told deputies that they speak, write, and read English. 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,” reported the police.
The deputies found cameras and other electronic equipment, including a drone, in the vehicle. After getting consent from the YouTubers, the deputies searched their cameras and found video taken on the federal site.
“Yesterday they said we [were] gonna go out [of] jail this morning, but we’re still here, we don’t know anything yet,” Sweep told KTNV Las Vegas. “We’re not getting any clear information about what’s next.”
The men were released on $500 bail on Sept. 12 and are expected at court on Sept. 16, according to the Nye County Sheriff’s Office.
In an interview with Omroep Brabant, Sweep believes that he and Granzier did nothing wrong by trespassing.
“This is something that I normally do not experience,” Sweep told the media. “Until now I have hardly ever encountered the police. This was something else.