‘Storm Area 51’ Could Be a Disaster for Lincoln County
Linda Looney, a manager at the Alien Research Center in Hiko, Nevada, is no stranger to unlikely theories and wild schemes. Even so, when she first saw on Facebook that thousands of people were planning to storm the nearby Air Force base known as Area 51, she thought it was a joke. She didn’t understand what it meant to “naruto run” or how doing so would allow anyone to “move faster than… bullets,” but she was sure the military would put an end to the shenanigans.
In her two and a half years working at the Alien Research Center (which produces zero scientific), Looney has seen her fair share of Area 51 aficionados. She’s spoken with believers from all over the world, from Iceland to Zimbabwe. Some come out of curiosity. Others are adamant that aliens secretly live among us. A few even claim to have been abducted. So when the guest list for the “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” Facebook event began to climb into the ten thousands, then the hundred thousands, then the millions, Looney understood that, for many people, this was more than a gag. It would be fun, she thought, not to mention great for business.
