Las Vegas police arrest man who breached airport security trying to get to Area 51
Dec 9, 2021, 9:46 PM | Updated: Mar 27, 2024, 5:08 pm
Photo by: STRF/STAR MAX/IPx 2021 7/18/21 Atmosphere at McCarran International Airport in Paradise, Nevada, USA on July 18, 2021. The airport serves the greater Las Vegas area and those in the tourism, hospitality and gaming industries are poised for a resurgence in business activity as further restrictions are eased during the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.
(CNN) — A man who told police he wanted to steal a jet so he could fly to Area 51 to look at aliens was arrested Wednesday after he drove through fences at the McCarran International Airport in a limo, parked on an aircraft ramp and made a bomb threat, according to a police report by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
The suspect was arrested for trespassing, dispersing a hoax substance and threatening terroristic acts, the police report said.
CNN has reached out to the law firm the man claimed was representing him, and the firm said it is not representing him in this matter.
The name Area 51 comes from its map designation and it’s located in the Nevada Test and Training Range, which is a unit of the Nellis Air Force Base. Today it is used as an open training range for the US Air Force.
It has long been a topic of fascination for conspiracy theorists and paranormal enthusiasts who believe it to be the location where the US government stores and hides alien bodies and UFOs.
Police first received a call of a vehicle performing donuts at the Jet Suite X parking lot at McCarran Airport at 6:45 p.m. As they were responding to the call, they were told the vehicle had breached inner and outer security gates and was now driving recklessly across a plane ramp, the report said.
Prior to police arrival, the report states that airport police also witnessed the suspect drive between several airplanes before stopping next to a parked jet and threatening Atlantic Aviation employees who had confronted him.
“I have a f****** bomb. I’m going to blow this place up,” the suspect — who witnesses said was wearing a clown mask — told employees, according to the police report.
He then re-entered the car as employees fled for cover and began evacuating the airport, the report added.
When police arrived, they were able to stop the vehicle and immediately detain the man, who told them he was trying to steal a jet and fly to Area 51 to see aliens and that he had a gasoline device and shotgun in his car, the police report noted.
A search of the suspect’s car revealed there was a device similar to an oxygen tank and what appeared to be a fire extinguisher with heavy-gauge wiring wrapped around it and a wooden platform, which looked similar to a possible explosive device, the report said.
During the incident, the suspect nearly crashed into several planes, disrupted air traffic, and prompted a major response by Las Vegas police and the FBI, police stated in the report.
Fence repairs were completed at the airport several hours later, the airport’s public information administer, Joe Rajchel, told CNN in an email.
“We thank those diligent workers who responded to this situation and safeguarded those here at the airport, both on the ground and in the air,” Rajchel added.
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