‘Flying aliens’ harassing village in Peru are illegal miners with jetpacks: cops (opens in new tab)

(vice.com)

45 pointslouislang2y ago23 comments

23 comments

Honestly, it's a lot easier to believe that it's aliens and not "illegal miners with jetpacks". Seems like an even more ridiculous explanation.

theptip2y ago

You know jetpacks are a thing now right?

https://youtu.be/DkZPI5m9SIE

“Illegal miners get their hands on some surprisingly niche tech” seems many many orders of magnitude more likely than anything related to aliens.

idontwantthis2y ago

Illegal miners in the Peruvian jungle would not be illegally mining in the Peruvian jungle if they had enough money and training to use one of those.

2 more replies

NBJack2y ago

To be frank, as cool as that is, it is easy to overlook the same problem with drones: they are distinctively LOUD unless at a distance (and even then).

Would be interesting to corroborate whether unusual noises are associated with their arrival.

1 more reply

nhinck22y ago

That thing has to be so bloody tiring to use, it'd have to be like constantly holding a dip right?

1 more reply

yellowapple2y ago

Illegal miners getting their hands on military prototypes seems pretty damn far-fetched, though.

Not to say that "aliens" is necessarily less far-fetched... but it's up there for sure.

tennisflyi2y ago

I would have believed it was aliens until I saw what you posted.

euroderf2y ago

> many orders of magnitude more likely

Money motivates+enables narco-traffickers to acquire some pretty amaze-level tech. So why not miners too ?

sterlind2y ago

seriously! it's literally a Scooby Doo plot. what's next, Shaggy and Velma manage to tie them up, and Fred unmasks them to discover it's an evil developer who wants to scare the locals away?

kcplate2y ago

I was thinking the same thing. Back in the 70s we were promised jet packs by now…so far, bupkis. I am starting to think the bastards lied to us.

quechimba2y ago

They have seen these beings in villages near Iquitos too. They call them pelacaras, face peelers. Someone I know saw 4 beings flying about one meter above the ground outside her house last week.

Would illegal miners even have access to jetpacks?

coolhand21202y ago

Back in the 80’s this is the sort of news I was promised would happen in the 2000’s! Finally! Now if only the LLM controlling the jet pack found an ethical dilemma in its new life of crime and decided to cut power mid flight and avenge the villagers we’d be fully in a William Gibson novel!

colordrops2y ago

Are jetpacks that easy to manufacture?

yellowapple2y ago

And if they are, why can't I buy one at Wal-Mart?

harshalizee2y ago

I wonder if there's a word in English to describe this. A headline/sentence like this would be so absolutely ridiculous in a work of fiction, but there's no such bar, so to speak, for real life!

jauco2y ago

I think the phrase “stranger than fiction” is commonly used for this.

That is also the title of a pretty funny movie.

sidibe2y ago

Seems like there's a lot of easier and more lucrative ways to make money off of being the first folks to create and operate useful jet packs than illegal mining

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

23 comments

telaelit2y ago

Honestly, it's a lot easier to believe that it's aliens and not "illegal miners with jetpacks". Seems like an even more ridiculous explanation.

theptip2y ago

You know jetpacks are a thing now right?

https://youtu.be/DkZPI5m9SIE

“Illegal miners get their hands on some surprisingly niche tech” seems many many orders of magnitude more likely than anything related to aliens.

idontwantthis2y ago

Illegal miners in the Peruvian jungle would not be illegally mining in the Peruvian jungle if they had enough money and training to use one of those.

2 more replies

NBJack2y ago

To be frank, as cool as that is, it is easy to overlook the same problem with drones: they are distinctively LOUD unless at a distance (and even then).

Would be interesting to corroborate whether unusual noises are associated with their arrival.

1 more reply

nhinck22y ago

That thing has to be so bloody tiring to use, it'd have to be like constantly holding a dip right?

1 more reply

yellowapple2y ago

Illegal miners getting their hands on military prototypes seems pretty damn far-fetched, though.

Not to say that "aliens" is necessarily less far-fetched... but it's up there for sure.

tennisflyi2y ago

I would have believed it was aliens until I saw what you posted.

euroderf2y ago

> many orders of magnitude more likely

Money motivates+enables narco-traffickers to acquire some pretty amaze-level tech. So why not miners too ?

sterlind2y ago

seriously! it's literally a Scooby Doo plot. what's next, Shaggy and Velma manage to tie them up, and Fred unmasks them to discover it's an evil developer who wants to scare the locals away?

kcplate2y ago

I was thinking the same thing. Back in the 70s we were promised jet packs by now…so far, bupkis. I am starting to think the bastards lied to us.

quechimba2y ago

They have seen these beings in villages near Iquitos too. They call them pelacaras, face peelers. Someone I know saw 4 beings flying about one meter above the ground outside her house last week.

Would illegal miners even have access to jetpacks?

coolhand21202y ago

colordrops2y ago

Are jetpacks that easy to manufacture?

yellowapple2y ago

And if they are, why can't I buy one at Wal-Mart?

harshalizee2y ago

I wonder if there's a word in English to describe this. A headline/sentence like this would be so absolutely ridiculous in a work of fiction, but there's no such bar, so to speak, for real life!

jauco2y ago

I think the phrase “stranger than fiction” is commonly used for this.

That is also the title of a pretty funny movie.

sidibe2y ago

Seems like there's a lot of easier and more lucrative ways to make money off of being the first folks to create and operate useful jet packs than illegal mining

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse