Is Dylan O' Brien a Thief? 'Maze Runner' Star Under Fire for Bragging Stolen Native American Artifacts
Dylan O'Brien and his co-actors for the second installment of "Maze Runner" are in hot water after he admitted that they stole sacred Native American artifacts from a burial site in Albuquerque.
Speaking at "Live! With Kelly and Michael," the 24-year-old actor said that he and his co-stars were stricken with random sicknesses after they took several artifacts while on set, despite warnings that they should respect the grounds.
The "Maze Runner: Scorch Trials" cast were filming at Diamond Tail Ranch which houses some Native American ruins and the ancient burial site, a report by The Wrap said.
O'Brien also told hosts Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan that his co-star brood just randomly took stuff, like rocks and skulls and joked that they thought the artifacts were actually haunted. The actor cited that some of them had a sudden appendectomy, broken ankle and he was even off for two days filming as he, himself, had fever.
The actor seemed to be chill and clueless with the repercussions of the alleged stealing when he was interviewed weeks ago.
A Dylan O'Brien fan was concerned of the cast's disrespectfulness of the Pueblo community and decided to file a petition demanding the director, Wes Ball, Dylan O'Brien and the rest of the cast to make a public apology.
With a total of 41,960 pledgers as of writing, the petition said that the cast has angered Native Americans for insolent act despite the strict instructions laid onto them.
"It would make a good statement about how to treat other people, including Native Americans, and stress that someone's culture isn't a joke," 19-year-old petitioner, Maeve Cunningham, told Santa Fe New Mexican. "It would make me even a bigger fan if he apologizes.
Cunningham also said that she doesn't believe the artifacts were haunted. "That's just more mocking of Native American culture," she added.
An archaeologist, Maxine McBrinn, curator of archaeology at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, explained to Santa Fe New Mexican that it is illegal to remove artifacts from their original sites.
"When somebody picks something up from an archaeological site, all that information that the 'something' might have given us is gone. Where the object was found in association with other objects ... has been destroyed. So you are destroying information when you do that." McBrinn said.
Roch Hart, manager of Diamond Tail Ranch, also gave a comment and told TMZ that he was annoyed with O'Brien's interview. Even though the management has not yet confirmed whether or not the cast had stolen some of the artifacts, he demands that if they actually did, it is best to return them or else he will seek legal support for the matter.
20th Century Fox has spoken to Hart and said that action has been taken over the matter as they called the cast to explain the truth regarding the alleged looting.
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