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London police stopped a pair of YouTubers after the duo flew a mock spy balloon above the city’s Chinese Embassy sometime last week.
The stunt, which has drawn a combined 1.1 million views on TikTok and YouTube, “got real quite quickly” after armed officers showed up at the scene, Josh Pieters told Insider.
Pieters and his prank partner, Archie Manners, are known for daring, elaborate social experiments that have tricked not only the public, but also celebrities and influencers.
For their latest video — which sought to poke fun at the Chinese spy balloon downed by the U.S. military on Feb. 4 — the duo reportedly purchased a weather balloon from eBay and inflated it with helium from a party supply store.
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They then equipped the balloon with a GoPro camera, tied it to a rope and allowed it to hover above the roof of London’s Chinese Embassy for about 10 minutes.
“We couldn’t make out exactly what was going on inside, but we did see a man on the roof who was conducting what looked like some very, very important business,” Pieters told Insider.
The YouTubers were under the impression that the embassy is an extension of China’s physical territory, leading them to believe that they were flying the balloon above “Chinese airspace.”
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However, this notion that embassies — as well as consulates, as part of a state’s diplomatic mission — are sovereign territories of their corresponding countries is a common misconception and does not reflect international law.
Still, diplomatic missions are afforded certain immunities and protections. A security guard who saw Pieters and Manners’ balloon called the police, and a red van “normally reserved for diplomatic protection and counterterrorism” showed up with four armed officers, according to Insider.
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