Living next to Area 51 has been a nightmare for one Nevada family and now after an aborted payoff attempt, they're breaking their silence. The Sheahan family has owned and operated Groom Mine extracting gold and silver near the mysterious Air Force compound for well over a century. The Nellis Air Force facility at Groom Lake aka Area 51 has long been the subject of many extraterrestrial theories making the location a tourist "must see" hot spot. But, in recent years, the hush-hush facility has bought more land surrounding the base and employing a phalanx of ever-vigilant armed sentries to keep prying eyes out.
Now, after nixing what they call a "low ball" bid to buy their land, the Sheahan family is more than fed up with Area 51 neighbors and breaking their silence – ripping the lid off what they call a covert land grab! "We really didn't want to come public but the Air Force has forced us into it," Dan Sheahan told TV news LasVegasNow. "We want 'em to know what they have done over the last 60 years to our family is not acceptable."
The Sheahan family say they have suffered "abuses and atrocities" from their clandestine neighbors. They claim the Air Force has dropped bombs, erected security checkpoints on their own land and strafed their property ever since the Groom Lake Air Force facility first became operational. Now to make matters worse, the Air Force has issued an ultimatum – take a $5.2 million buyout for the Sheahan land – a whopping 400 acres - or they'll have it legally condemned, citing "increasing national security demands," and seize it.
"The Air Force has exhausted all reasonable options to reach a settlement with the land owners," Col. Thomas Dempsey, Commander, Nevada Test and Training Range Wing at Nellis Air Force Base said via statement. The Sheahan family now has until Sept. 10th to "consider" the offer. "If they can do this to us, they can do it to each and every one," Dan Sheahan charged. Joe Sheahan called the September 11th take-over by Area 51 military brass a "criminal act."