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On Saturday, Lauren Witzke, a film producer supporting Noah’s Ark Scans, appealed for fresh donations after alleging Andrew Jones, the group’s founder, had his residence burglarized. Finding proof of a real Noah’s Ark would be a massive coup for Christians trying to support Biblical accounts with solid evidence. However, prominent geologists have dismissed this possibility and say the site being investigated is a natural rock formation. Burglary In a post on X, Witzke wrote: “Noah’s Ark Scans founder’s apartment ransacked and burglarized!! “We’ve already said this expedition has come under attacks that are borderline demonic. But we still didn’t think they’d go this far.” According to Witzke, Jones was repeatedly woken up “between 1 and 3 a.m.” by “people banging on his door” and “threatening to kill him” at the apartment he is living in near the excavation site. In response, Witzke said Jones had gone to stay with a friend, during which burglars "broke in and they turned the place upside down. “They stole his laptops, his computers, his memory cards, basically anything they though he might have stored the Noah’s Ark evidence on,” she added. Witzke said it “doesn’t look like a local job” and that police told her security cameras at the apartment block weren’t working when the break-in took place, but insisted they had copied “everything on memory cards so none of the data was lost.” She also shared photographs purporting to show the inside of Jones’s apartment following the burglary. Speaking to Newsweek, Jones said: “My apartment was broken into while I was away. Devices were taken; the research data had already been copied. My friend reported it to the local police while I was away and I am not going to guess who did it. “This should not be laid at the door of Turkey or the people near the site. They have been good to us, we work with Turkish partners under official authorization, and the study is continuing with the lab work this winter.” Newsweek contacted Turkish police for comment on Sunday via email outside of regular office hours. Fundraising Witzke ended her email by asking supporters to “help us finish our mission” on crowdfunding website GiveSendGo. According to Noah’s Ark Scans’ GiveSendGo page, the group has currently raised $104,000 out of a target of $600,000 to help fund the search. On the page, the group say they “believe the Bible is true” and “believe the remains of Noah’s Ark are buried in eastern Turkey.” They added: “Our total fundraising goal is $600,000 for the expedition. Your donation helps pay for the drilling crew, specialized equipment, and the logistics of working at this site. We're also raising support for the laboratory testing of what we bring out of the ground.” Noah’s Story Arc in the Bible According to the Book of Genesis, God decides to destroy humanity with a great flood because of its wickedness, but spared Noah and his family. God instructed Noah to build a huge ark and bring aboard his family and pairs of animals, allowing them to survive the flood while the rest of humanity perishes. The Bible says that after the waters recede, the ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat, and God establishes a covenant with Noah, symbolized by a rainbow, promising never again to destroy all life with a flood. However, this account is contentious with Professor David Montgomery, a geologist at the University of Washington, writing: “For nearly two centuries, there has been overwhelming geological evidence that a global flood, as depicted in the story of Noah in the biblical book of Genesis, could not have happened.” Some modern Christians believe the story of Noah’s Ark is intended to be a metaphor rather than literally true. A 1996 paper by geologist Lorence Collins and former Ark advocate David Fasold concluded that the boat-like shape at the site was produced by a doubly plunging syncline, meaning folded rock layers subsequently shaped by erosion and geological processes. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly and Cristina Diciu. News Turkey Bible Christian Christianity Crime Archaeology Turkey Bible Christian Christianity Crime Archaeology News Article Noah’s Ark Hunters Raise $100,000 As Burglary Detailed Published Sep 27, 2026 at 12:33 PM EDT updated Sep 27, 2026 at 12:34 PM EDT By James Bickerton US News Reporter 0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Noah’s Ark Scans, an American Christian group, have raised over $100,000 on a crowdfunding platform to support an ongoing excavation at a site in the Durupınar Formation, Turkey, which they believe could hold the remains of Noah’s Ark from the Bible. On Saturday, Lauren Witzke, a film producer supporting Noah’s Ark Scans, appealed for fresh donations after alleging Andrew Jones, the group’s founder, had his residence burglarized. Finding proof of a real Noah’s Ark would be a massive coup for Christians trying to support Biblical accounts with solid evidence. However, prominent geologists have dismissed this possibility and say the site being investigated is a natural rock formation. Read More on News Burglary In a post on X, Witzke wrote: “Noah’s Ark Scans founder’s apartment ransacked and burglarized!! “We’ve already said this expedition has come under attacks that are borderline demonic. But we still didn’t think they’d go this far.” According to Witzke, Jones was repeatedly woken up “between 1 and 3 a.m.” by “people banging on his door” and “threatening to kill him” at the apartment he is living in near the excavation site. View this post on X In response, Witzke said Jones had gone to stay with a friend, during which burglars "broke in and they turned the place upside down. “They stole his laptops, his computers, his memory cards, basically anything they though he might have stored the Noah’s Ark evidence on,” she added. Witzke said it “doesn’t look like a local job” and that police told her security cameras at the apartment block weren’t working when the break-in took place, but insisted they had copied “everything on memory cards so none of the data was lost.” She also shared photographs purporting to show the inside of Jones’s apartment following the burglary. ... Speaking to Newsweek, Jones said: “My apartment was broken into while I was away. Devices were taken; the research data had already been copied. My friend reported it to the local police while I was away and I am not going to guess who did it. “This should not be laid at the door of Turkey or the people near the site. They have been good to us, we work with Turkish partners under official authorization, and the study is continuing with the lab work this winter.” Newsweek contacted Turkish police for comment on Sunday via email outside of regular office hours. Fundraising Witzke ended her email by asking supporters to “help us finish our mission” on crowdfunding website GiveSendGo. According to Noah’s Ark Scans’ GiveSendGo page, the group has currently raised $104,000 out of a target of $600,000 to help fund the search. On the page, the group say they “believe the Bible is true” and “believe the remains of Noah’s Ark are buried in eastern Turkey.” They added: “Our total fundraising goal is $600,000 for the expedition. Your donation helps pay for the drilling crew, specialized equipment, and the logistics of working at this site. We're also raising support for the laboratory testing of what we bring out of the ground.” Noah’s Story Arc in the Bible According to the Book of Genesis, God decides to destroy humanity with a great flood because of its wickedness, but spared Noah and his family. God instructed Noah to build a huge ark and bring aboard his family and pairs of animals, allowing them to survive the flood while the rest of humanity perishes. The Bible says that after the waters recede, the ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat, and God establishes a covenant with Noah, symbolized by a rainbow, promising never again to destroy all life with a flood. However, this account is contentious with Professor David Montgomery, a geologist at the University of Washington, writing : “For nearly two centuries, there has been overwhelming geological evidence that a global flood, as depicted in the story of Noah in the biblical book of Genesis, could not have happened.” Some modern Christians believe the story of Noah’s Ark is intended to be a metaphor rather than literally true. A 1996 paper by geologist Lorence Collins and former Ark advocate David Fasold concluded that the boat-like shape at the site was produced by a doubly plunging syncline, meaning folded rock layers subsequently shaped by erosion and geological processes. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly and Cristina Diciu. 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