Watch your Bingo Security Brits: You can’t Play in Jail!

When you lots were happily tweeting about your bingo winnings two young Brits were locked up in an American jail for tweeting about “destroying America”. The tourists, male and female, spent 12 hours locked up in separate jails after reaching LAX airport in Los Angeles; they are then reported to have been banged up with Mexican drug dealers and endured hours of gruelling about their supposed ‘terrorist plot’.

The pair are now safely back in the UK contemplating their lucky escape with the law. Being accused of terrorism isn’t your average twenty-something holiday tale but whether this was misunderstood British humour or over sensitive American laws I think it’s fair to say that the youths won’t be returning state side soon.

The Department of Homeland Security searched Twitter and flagged the tweets as suspicious and a potential threat to American security. The tweets by the 26 year old youth read “Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America” and “3 weeks today, we're totally in LA p****** people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin' Marilyn Monroe up”. After making their way through security they were immediately detained by armed guards and are said to have been ‘confused and terrified’.

The guards are even reported to have searched their baggage, looking for spades to dig up Marilyn Monroe’s grave, the pair insist that this was humour and that ‘destroy’ is British slang for party but security forces did not believe them and after confiscating their passports the guards are said to have handcuffed them and put them in a van with illegal immigrants, they were then locked up overnight and denied access to a phone to call relatives back in the UK.

The pair never got the chance to see America and were instead shipped back on a plane home the following morning. This calls for questions about security in America, was this over the top American security enforcement? Or two young Brits who should have known better?

According the surveys you need to be cautious of other words on Twitter, if you tweet words including: illegal immigrants, outbreak, drill, strain, virus, recovery, deaths, collapse, human to animal and trojan you could face a similar situation to these unfortunate Brits. The Department of Homeland Security has recently faced criticism over false accounts that it set up on Twitter with the aim of scanning networks for sensitive words, they would then track the people who used them for what they claim to be ‘security purposes’.

This was a controversial step for the Department of Homeland Security and an online privacy group, the electronic Privacy Information Centre requested information on their scans under a freedom of information act to investigate and protect those caught with the scans.

So, stick to the simple tweets of your big bingo winnings ladies and gentlemen, we don’t want to be locked up before we even get on our holidays for a simple tweet on a social networking site. We’re not bingo terrorists.

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Players Comments

• 2012-02-03 | jon: Haha yeah, I found it hilarious how those riot thugs were caught by posting pictures of themselves with the goods they'd robbed. altho not sure what this has to do with playing bingo...