Young men drove 5 hours to rip out California monolith and replace with cross, video shows
Update to this story >> >> Mysterious monolith is back in Atascadero — and another one just popped up in SLO County
A livestream video posted online shows a group of out-of-town young men road-tripping from Southern California to tear down the mysterious monolith that appeared on an Atascadero hilltop only a day earlier.
A three-sided metal monolith was discovered by hikers in Atascadero’s Stadium Park on Wednesday, the third of its kind to make an appearance around the world.
Officials had no clue as to how the monolith appeared there or why. But it didn’t last long, and Atascadero officials are not happy about what apparently happened.
Just as suddenly as it appeared, the structure was gone, but with far less mystery after word spread of the video showing a crew decked out in camo gear and night-vision goggles ripping out the metal structure and leaving a wooden cross in its place.
Video shows group chanting ‘Christ is king’ as they tear down monolith
The grainy video, shared to streaming site DLive.tv by a user identified as CultureWarCriminal, shows a group of young men driving from the Southern California area with the express purpose to tear down the structure and “tell the alien overlords they are not welcome.” (The video has since been removed.)
“Thank God we were able to carpool,” one of them says at the beginning of the livestream, which was broadcast to a cheerleading audience that numbered more than 600 at one point.
In the rambling and at times racist and homophobic video, the four young men drive up Interstate 5, loudly singing along to country music.
On the way, they stop to pick up Monster Energy drinks and a homemade wooden cross, while sharing their thoughts on what they alternately called “an alien obelisk” and other times “a pagan monument.”
“We’re going on a 500-mile roundtrip to steal a f---ing monolith,” one dressed in camo says during the video. “That’s how much we love Jesus Christ.”
At one point, one of the men says they are operating “on direct orders of QAnon and President Trump himself.”
After five hours, they finally make it to Stadium Park and turn on night-vision goggles as they trek up the hill to the monolith.
“This is go-time boys,” one says just before they begin chanting “Christ is king.”
The chant continues as they all push down the silver structure and tear it from the rebar. The final seconds of the video show one member of the group attempting to drag the monolith away as others try to install their homemade cross in its place.
Then the video cuts out.
A second stream posted by the same user soon after that has also since been removed showed the group then dragging the monolith down the hill as they chant “America first” and claim to be military veterans.
At one point, they appear to think they are being chased by someone and hide before hightailing it back to their car without the monolith.
“The Illuminati got it, so we’ll strike again when they put another pillar up,” the camo-dressed streamer says.
City officials ‘upset’ by loss of monolith
According to a news release issued by the city on Thursday, Atascadero officials were aware of the video and were disturbed by the group’s decision to tear down the monolith.
“We are upset that these young men felt the need to drive five hours to come into our community and vandalize the monolith,” Mayor Heather Moreno said in a news release. “The monolith was something unique and fun in an otherwise stressful time.”
According to the release, the Atascadero Police Department has not received any reports to date that the monolith had been removed or stolen, so there is no hint yet as to who installed it in the first place.
The department is reviewing the video and looking into the incident further. More information will be released once it is available, the city said.
Those with information about the monolith are asked to contact the Atascadero Police Department at 805-461-5051.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the removal of the videos from the streaming service dlive.tv as of Thursday afternoon.
This story was originally published December 3, 2020 at 3:00 PM.
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