Dutch Foreign Nationals Arrested after Trespassing at Area 51
Govert Charles Wilhelmus Jacob Sweep, 21, (pictured left) and Tiers Granzier, 20 (pictured right); both of the Netherlands. (Nye County Sheriff’s Department)
According to a press release issued last Wednesday by the Nye County Sheriff’s Department:
On September 10th, 2019, the Nye County Sheriff’s Office responded to the Nevada National Security Site for a report of foreign national trespassers. Deputies found their car parked near a gate approximately three miles into Nevada National Security Site property. The occupants of the vehicle were identified as Govert Charles Wilhelmus Jacob Sweep and Ties Granzier, both of the Netherlands.
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. Granzier advised deputies that he is a YouTuber, and deputies observed several cameras, a phone, a laptop, and a drone inside of their vehicle. Both individuals consented to a search of their cameras, and deputies observed video footage taken on Nevada National Security Site property.
Both Sweep and Granzier were arrested. They were booked into the Nye County Detention Center and charged with trespassing.
Authorities believe that Sweep and Granzier were at the top secret military site in advance of the “Storm Area 51 — They Can’t Stop All of Us” event that has recently gained mass attention on the internet. The event, created by California college student Matty Roberts, gained over two million followers and attracted worldwide attention at the height of its popularity.
Top secret military base Area 51 is roughly 83 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and the desert surrounding it is famous for sightings of UFOs. Although the base is a well-known site for the testing of cutting-edge aircraft, it has also been long-speculated to hold extraterrestrial technology.
“Now on to crazy recordings of crazy adventures (at) Area 51," Granzier posted in Dutch to Instagram, prior to their arrest.
Sweep told KTNV News that the two only became aware of the “Storm Area 51” movement after coming across the Area 51 Alien Center in Nevada.
“The Alien Center was hanging with shirts, it’s like a kind of big thing here,” he said. “The woman in the Alien Center, the gas station, said ‘okay, you can go to Mercury [a village near Area 51], and you can watch there,’ so we’re just like okay and we go there.”
“We’re driving, as I said, we’re not the only ones going there, there were a lot of cars going there,” Sweep continued. “We didn’t have any intention to storm it because we leave one day before the actual storming dates, and we just wanted to make—to go there.”
The two men claim they were not aware of the seriousness of trespassing in the area, despite having told police at the time of their arrest that they can read English and understood the “No Trespassing” signs they had passed.
“If I wasn’t a YouTuber...I’m just here for trespassing and I think it's not normal for such a small thing,” said Sweep.
Granzier is a personality on a popular Dutch YouTube channel, and currently has over 735,000 subscribers. Sweep is also a YouTuber.
Both men were released September 12th on $500 bail.
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