If you’re up to date on UFO lore, you might be familiar with Dreamland Resort, a blog dedicated revealing the “secrets of Area 51” since its inception in 1999 by Nevada resident Joerg Arnu. Earlier this month, multiple homes associated with Arnu were raided by agents from both the FBI and the U.S. Air Force.
According Arnu’s blog, the raids involved “15-20 agents in full riot gear” who broke down the doors of both houses and caused “further damage in both homes besides the broken front doors.” He continues, noting despite his “repeated requests for an explanation, I was only told that the search was related to images posted on my Area 51 web site.” According to the blog, the search warrant was served with was 40 missing pages, and the document did not say what the purpose of the raid was.
The image of the federal government bursting into a UFO blogger’s headquarters, confiscating a bunch of equipment, and offering heavily-redacted explanation is a conspiracy theorist’s dream. But before we begin speculating as to which version of aliens is probably confirmed as real now (we hope it’s E.T. and not the Xenomorphs) let’s take a step back and think about why this raid probably happened.
Long the subject of speculation and internet memes, Area 51 is a highly classified facility that has been at the epicenter of myriad UFO sightings. This probably has less to do with actual evidence of extraterrestrial life, and more to do with the fact that it is also the location where the Air Force reportedly tests and develops some of its most sensitive and experimental new projects and aircraft. Among the items confiscated from Arnu’s home, he notes that the federal agents took “laptops, phones, backup drives, camera gear, and my drone.” That last entry is particularly interesting because drones are strictly forbidden in and around Area 51. More likely than not, someone in the Air Force noticed that the pictures on Arnu’s blog could not have been taken legally and felt obligated to make sure he didn’t have anything else illegal on his equipment.
The rest of the explanation is unfortunately mundane. Of course there are pages missing from the search warrant, information about classified government facilities tends to be — well, classified. And Arnu’s complaints that the raid “happened without any warning” reads as adorably naive as to how raids work.
While we do sympathize with Arnu’s financial situation, we also cannot help but suspect that this raid may hae been the best thing that’s ever happened to him. After all, any theory he’s ever put forward about Area 51 now carries the endorsement of the Air Force. Because if it wasn’t true…why would they raid his house?
[“The X-Files” theme music plays.]
