International Twitter Fail: British Tourists Arrested Over Tweets About Destroying America, Digging Up Marilyn Monroe

Image by xioubin low via Flickr

Last Monday, two British tourists landed at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and were greeted with handcuffs. The reason for their detainment did not stem from inappropriate behavior during their flight to the U.S. Rather, Homeland Security had flagged two of the male tourists' tweets leading up to his trip as potential threats to America.

Leigh Van Bryan, 26, posted two tweets outlining his trip itinerary pre-travel. One tweet read, "Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America," according to Mail Online. Another post quoted the TV show Family Guy and caught Homeland Security's attention: "3 weeks today, we're totally in LA p****** people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin' Marilyn Monroe up!"

Bryan and friend Emily Bunting, 24, were apprehended and questioned for five hours after arrival at LAX. The tourists explained that the term "destroy" is slang for "party," but they were held on suspicion of planning to "commit crimes." Their passports were also confiscated. Federal agents searched Leigh's luggage for "spades and shovels," said Bunting - tools the suspect might use to raid Monroe's grave. Agents also conducted a full body search on Bunting.

After five hours of questioning at the airport, the duo was handcuffed and transported to jail in a van. They began their holiday with a twelve-hour overnight stay under armed guard in prison cells shared by Mexican drug dealers. "When I was in the van I was handcuffed and put in a cage," said Bunting. "I had a panic attack but the worse was yet to come." Prison conditions are apparently not too accommodating.

Both tourists managed to find some humor in the grave incident. Bunting said, "The officials told us we were not allowed in to the country because of Leigh's tweet. They wanted to know what we were going to do." She added, "I almost burst out laughing when they asked me if I was going to be Leigh's lookout while he dug up Marilyn Monroe." Bryan said, "It's just so ridiculous it's almost funny but at the time it was really scary. The Homeland Security agents were treating me like some kind of terrorist." Per Bryan, agents told him, "You've really f***** up with that tweet, boy."

Bryan's social media skills put quite the ripple in their U.S. visit. After their brief detainment, the tourists were taken back to LAX and put on a plane back to England via Paris. Should the two ever brave the States again, they must apply for visas via the US Embassy in London. Bryan has taken steps to ensure his tweets are a bit more secure. His Twitter account is now locked down to only confirmed followers, says WebProNews.

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By Lauren Lloyd in News on January 30, 2012 9:40 AM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

Spokker

I'm getting hard just thinking of that full body search they did on Emily. Thanks Homeland Security.

What a joke.

V_Triol

I would LOVE to hear Nigel Farage get wound up on this incident...

John Chavarria

What happened to making America more tourist friendly??

Gigs

That would just encourage those illegal alien people to come to the US and stay! Can't have that...

L

Hahaaha morons for the security of USA. Yay \O/ Anybody smarter than them would know how the brits say get destroyed or destroy the town means getting pissed or poshed or what ever. And then when they actually find out it really means getting trashed and they had to know it was a joke about Marilyn Monroe..But they didn't want to show that the couple had one on them. So like the incompetent no humor hard-ass buffoons they are kept up the pathetic over the top harassment of the tourists.. LOL looked for shovels ..like an airline will let you take a shovel on your baggage? Rolls eyes. Get a clue you moronic security agents and actually go look for real terrorists. Pfft

MMA Acupuncture

The authorities are trying to make an example out of these people. Yes you shouldn't be stupid to say terrorist sounding threats, but lets not give this more attention then it deserves. Now the real terrorist are laughing.

tomdarch

Great to know that our counter terrorism resources are being used like this.

It's one thing for the system to flag this guy, and for him to be interviewed when he arrived. But for the officials to not then realize that this guy was obviously joking is a sad comment on their competence.

Also great to know that DHS isn't capable of understanding non-US colloquial English. I'm sure they're much, much better at understanding local/regional colloquial Arabic or Urdu (or any other language.)

Incompetently over-reacting in this situation doesn't make me feel safer - it makes me suspect that they are similarly acting incompetently when they are faced with a real threat - so it's up to chance if they get it right, not good intelligence or skilled analysis.

DCUnionGuy

Security theatre + inept government agents. Feel teh stupid!

Sergio Cano Soto

It's funny how some of you Americans think you are living in the real democracy when you hold the real totalitarism

exbaytriate

in los angeles, we think we are living in the real taqueria when we hold the real tortillaism.

slickpoetry

Seems excessive, i suppose.

Has this story been verified/authenticated by any officials? Usually there is a choice quote or two to go along with a story like this. All the Mail offers is a jpeg image of a document that could've been created by anyone with Microsoft Word.

I am not saying I'm in place to judge either way, but it wouldn't shock me if these two tourists made up the whole thing.

exbaytriate

they are british, after all.

brooklynRick

Ron Paul doesn't want to get rid of the TSA?

Paul

I bet the next step - if they had actually let them in the US - would be to have Mark Wahlburg tag along/follow them, because he would've prevented any of their terrorist attacks.

L

Or Matt Damon

Paul

There are 2 things that happen when you make your tweets/facebook public
1) You come off as an idiot (because not everyone has *your* sense of humor)
2) You will now be considered a terrorist

souadmassi

I can totally imagine the fluorescent-lit meeting room full of 40-60 year old bureaucrats from various bloated 'security' agencies foaming at the mouth with glee as some 35 year old 'techie' explains to them Twitter and social media and how they can stop the next 9/11 without having to actually do anything requiring effort/intelligence.

luke_1

Police states lack a sense of humor. We're well on the way. All aboard! Next stop is the gulag.

SFNY

Marilyn's grave isn't even in the ground.

Let's forget about the cost to DHS's credibility. How much is Bryan's & Bunting's lawsuit going to cost us?

Timon_8

DHS has credibility? What did I miss?

SFNY

Those who've bottomed out can always keep digging.

Politburo

They aren't US citizens, so it's not clear what standing they have for a lawsuit. My guess is none.

Greg Merideth

You don't have to be a U.S. citizen to file a lawsuit.

bcarter3

They'll be able to dine out on this story for years, and they'll make a ton of money from the rights to the inevitable comedy film. Best US trip ever!

ChicagoD

Man, I wonder how many followers that dude has. I mean, I'd notice the gubmint following me right away, but I only have 20 followers or so.

David Lytle

They don't need to follow you to read public tweets. They just have to read through their search results for mentions of "destroy" and "america."