YouTubers draw crowd of 2,500 — and cops — to ‘Jersey Shore’ house

SEASIDE HEIGHTS — More than 2,500 people showed up Monday night outside the house used in the MTV show "Jersey Shore," where YouTube personalities were making social media videos.

Borough police called in backup from surrounding departments and the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office to help with crowd control and blocking streets, Chief Tommy Boyd said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

The Nelk Boys, with 6 million followers on YouTube,  called police for an off duty police security police officer on Monday afternoon as the crowd in front on the house located at 1209 Boardwalk grew to a size of 1,500 by 7:30 p.m., according to police.

The Full Send NJ car club, which is related to the Nelk Boys, had a car show at Dupont and Ocean Terrace which attracted another 1,000 people.

Some of the visitors drove high-performance cars and spun their tires loudly and raced on the Garden State Parkway, according to Lavallette-Seaside Shorebeat.

Many in the crowd were not wearing face coverings but were "well behaved," although a few bottles were thrown, according to Ocean County Sheriff Mike Mastronardy.

Police said that a male was arrested on a disorderly persons charge and the crowd began to throw bottles and rocks at officers during and after the arrest. A total of eight people were arrested.

The Nelk Boys say they deliver new videos every Monday at 8:30 p.m. In a brief video on their Twitter account, they said they were getting “kicked out of the Shore house” and showed a brief shot of the crowd outside on the boardwalk. They promoted being at the house for the release of new basketball and baseball jerseys.

On Twitter, their account denied news reports about throwing a party.

"Police in jersey themselves said we did nothing wrong today! And they writing we hosted a party. Anywhere we go people will find us! They blaming the fact we have a strong fanbase," their tweet Monday night said.

The crowd was brought under control by police by midnight, according to police.

Last week, they were demonetized by YouTube after hosting a series of parties at Illinois State University that drew thousands to the campus in Normal, Illinois, which officials said threatened the school's efforts to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, NBC Chicago reported.

"I am extremely disappointed in the actions of some of our students who gathered on Tuesday evening at various off-campus locations," university president Larry Dietz said in a statement.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ