Why Do People Think Aliens Showed Up In A Miami Mall? The Latest 'Aliens' Conspiracy Explained

2024 has kicked off where 2023 left off with a brand new alien frenzy on the internet, this time concerning a quickly-spreading rumor that aliens appeared at Bayside Marketplace in Miami, Florida. Unfortunately for the Mulders among us, the evidence of "alien activity" this time around is practically non-existent.

What Happened At The Bayside Marketplace Mall In Miami?

The incident at the center of the first "aliens" conspiracy of the year is a massive police presence that swarmed Miami's Bayside Marketplace shopping mall. Footage of dozens of police vehicles pulling up the mall went viral early in the morning on January 1st, making local residents and viewers concerned that something very serious was going on.

While there was indeed an incident at the mall, it thankfully wasn't a fatal or tragic situation. According to local news, a large group of juveniles were vandalizing the mall and getting into fights. This included the throwing of fireworks in the air and at each other. The sound of the fireworks caused panic at the mall, as some believed the sounds of the fireworks were gunshots. With the potential for an armed shooter at the mall, a massive police force descended on the area. Luckily, the sounds were not from a mass shooter, and there were no deaths at the mall.

Why Do People Think Aliens Appeared In Miami?

There seems to be no compelling evidence that aliens visited the mall in Miami and caused the police to swarm the building. The earliest known mention of aliens appears to be a tweet by @AlphonsusOlieh, who said that "witnesses" mentioned seeing large "creatures" and "beings" during the fracas. He did not include footage of any witnesses making this claim, and those wouldn't begin suddenly appearing until days later, when the rumor became more widespread.

The rumor began growing more popular after a small publication called Radio Free Hub City jumped on the sparse social media chatter about "aliens" in Miami. The article caught the attention of a Barstool employee, who posted about it on TikTok, and then the floodgates opened, with people trying to find evidence of "aliens" in the footage from the New Year's Eve incident in Miami.

As the news of a potential alien sighting hit the internet, testimonials from people who claimed to have been at the Miami mall on New Year's Eve curiously started appearing. One user claimed they were at the incident "yesterday" (though the event took place five days ago), and a video from a supposed attendee began spreading among conspiracy theorists on Twitter.

The maker of the video, sosa.pippen, admitted they were lying in a video on TikTok on January 5th.

With no video or reliable testimony from witnesses seeing the so-called aliens in Miami, all people could do was joke about the conspiracy in a variety of ways, posting sketches and facepalms at the believers of an extremely tenuous conspiracy theory.

For more information, check out the Miami mall aliens rumor entry on Know Your Meme.