Feds raid home of an Area 51 enthusiast who runs a website dedicated to the secretive military base in Nevada: Claims he and his girlfriend were ‘detained and treated in the most disrespectful way’ by 20 agents
- The owner of one of the world’s most popular Area 51 websites says that his two homes were raided by more than a dozen federal agents on November 3
- German national, Joreg Arnu, said that the feds took around $20,000 worth of hardware including drones and laptops
- Since 1999, Arnu has operated Dreamland Resort, named for one of Area 51’s nickname, a resource for all things related to the secretive military base
- Arnu also said that he has not been told what the raids were all about and that he said he was willing to co-operate with law enforcement
- Despite Area 51’s associations with extra terrestrials, Arnu previously described himself as a ‘plane spotter’ and said that he was not interested in aliens
Agents from the FBI and the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations raided the homes of the operator of one of the world’s most popular Area 51 websites.
The raid on two properties owned by Joreg Arnu took place on November 3. One home is in the tiny Nevada town of Rachel and the other is in Las Vegas.
Arnu is the webmaster of Dreamland Resort, an online resource for all things related to the secretive Air Force base in the Nevada desert. Dreamland is one of the nicknames for Area 51. Arnu began the website in 1999.
He bought his home in Rachel in order to be closer to Area 51. The community is located just outside of the base, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
At the time of writing, neither the FBI nor the Air Force has publicly disclosed the reasons for the raid. Even Arnu, a naturalized US citizen who is a software engineer, doesn’t know why the agents showed up at his properties.
The raid was first reported by Las Vegas based investigative journalist George Knapp.
Joreg Arnu is the webmaster of Dreamland Resort, an online resource for all things related to the secretive Air Force base in the Nevada desert known as Area 51
Arnu, pictured with his girlfriend, Linda Hellow, she was at home when his Las Vegas home was also raided by federal agents
Arnu bought his home in Rachel in order to be closer to Area 51. The community is located just outside of the base, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Among the items found on Dreamland Resort are drone videos showing Area 51, photos of aircraft that regularly fly overhead and forums where users discuss theories around the base
Among the items found on Dreamland Resort are drone videos showing Area 51, photos of aircraft that regularly fly overhead and forums where users discuss theories around the base.
One popular topic on the website is the status of the Northrop Grumman RQ-180 the US military’s most sophisticated unmanned stealth bomber.
In a statement on his website, Arnu said: ‘I believe the search, executed with completely unnecessary force by overzealous government agents was meant as a message to silence the Area 51 research community.’
He went on to say that he was home alone in Rachel when 15-20 agents showed up at his front door. Arnu said that his girlfriend, Linda Hellow, was at their home in Las Vegas when she was roused from her bed in the early hours of the morning.
Arnu estimate that agents did thousands of dollars of damage to his home during the raid
Area 51 and Tonopah Test Range Airport, located deep in the massive Nevada Test and Training Range that covers a large portion of southern Nevada
Agents took his laptops, phones, a drone, backup drives and photography equipment, worth around $20,000. As a result of the seizures, Arnu says that he has lost access to important financial documentation
German native Arnu said that the pair were ‘detained and treated in the most disrespectful way.’
He went on: ‘My girlfriend was led out into the street barefoot and only in her underwear in full view of the neighbors. I was led outside, handcuffed and only in a t-shirt and sweats in sub-freezing temperatures.’
When asked what the raid was regarding, Arnu said the was merely told that it was ‘related to images posted on my Area 51 website.’
Agents took his laptops, phones, a drone, backup drives and photography equipment, worth around $20,000. As a result of the seizures, Arnu says that he has lost access to important financial documentation.
In addition, Arnu says that the raid caused $5,000 worth of damage to his Rachel home.
While the raid was taking place, Arnu said that he told FBI agents that he would be willing to remove items from his website. That’s despite the information being ‘egally obtained and legal to publish. I’m not sharing anything on my website that cannot be found on dozens of other websites and news outlet publications.’
Now, Arnu said that it would take a federal judge to force him to remove material from his site.
In an interview with CBS Las Vegas, Arnu rejected the claim that he is antigovernmental saying: ‘I came to this country because I love this country and I became a citizen to support this country
On his website, Arnu writes: ‘I believe that the best way to find answers is by sharing information, and I founded the Dreamland Resort Web Site as a forum for interested people to exchange their thoughts’
In an interview with CBS Las Vegas, Arnu rejected the claim that he is antigovernmental saying: ‘I came to this country because I love this country and I became a citizen to support this country.’
He went on: ‘I would never do anything to hurt this country, but I don’t understand what is going on right now.’
Describing the raid, Arnu said: ‘I’m asking, “Okay, what is going on? What are you doing in my house?” I’m looking basically at this point at a riot shield and a gun that was drawn and pointed at me and an agent in a stern voice giving me commands.’
The website owner said that he was given a search warrant that was largely redacted.
Talking about his girlfriend’s ordeal, Arnu said: ‘She was led out into the street — in the middle of the street in full view of all the neighbors, and subsequently our homes were searched.’
He reiterated that if he had been told which image was causing problems, he would have removed it. Speaking about the motivation behind the raid, Arnu said: ‘I believe this was all about sending a message.’
On his website, Arnu writes: ‘I believe that the best way to find answers is by sharing information, and I founded the Dreamland Resort Web Site as a forum for interested people to exchange their thoughts.’
In a 2007 feature on his activities, Arnu told the New York Times: ‘I’m a plane-spotter. I have no real belief in the alien stuff.’
Back in 2019, when a social media campaign gathered steam as users promised to ‘Storm Area 51,’ Arnu spoke out against the plan.
He said: ‘Those that know what to expect camping in the desert are going to have a good time.’
Those who show up in shorts and flip-flops will find no protection against ‘critters, snakes and scorpions.’
‘It will get cold at night. They’re not going to find what they’re looking for, and they are going to get angry,’ Arnu said.
The base is known as Area 51 among UFO aficionados because that was the base’s designation on old Nevada test site maps.
A man takes a selfie with his son in front of a sign at the Alien Research Center in Hiko, Nevada on September 21, 2019
Released 2013 documents by the CIA revealed that officials renamed Area 51 ‘Paradise Ranch’ to try to lure skilled workers, who can still be seen over Las Vegas flying to and from the site on unmarked planes.
Beginning with the U-2 in the 1950s, the base has been the testing ground for a host of top-secret aircraft, including the SR-71 Blackbird, F-117A stealth fighter and B-2 stealth bomber.
Some believe the base’s Strangelovian hangars also store alien vehicles, evidence from the ‘Roswell incident’ — the alleged 1947 crash of a UFO in New Mexico — and extraterrestrial corpses.
The CIA history mentions an ‘unexpected side effect’ of the high-flying planes: ‘a tremendous increase in reports of unidentified flying objects.’
The U-2 and Oxcart planes, which flew higher than civilians believed possible, accounted for half of UFO sightings during the 1950s and ’60s, according to the report.
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