Two British Tourists Say Some Of Their Local Slang Landed Them In Jail

Two British tourists say that some of their local slang landed them in an LA jail, and it's all about some misunderstood tweets. 

"Ikept saying this is a mixup, someone is going to come in a minute and say, oh no, sorry, this is stupid."

"Free this week for a quick gossip/ prep before i go and destroy America?"

They tried to explain 'destroy' is British slang for partying hard.

"Three weeks today, we're totally in LA, p-ing people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin' Marilyn Monroe up!"

Leigh says it was a joke. border patrol agents didn't see it that way. After midnight armed guards came in, cuffed them, put them in a van and drove them away. 

"I kept asking him where are we going? Because we were getting further and further away from the airport, he turned around and said we were going to downtown LA and my heart just dropped because I know that can be the roughest place of Los Angeles."

"They make you do this with your top and they put all the food there and this mexican man goes mine, mine, mine and pushed this carton of apple juice at me and I just went, 'really?"

The next day they were picked up and sent packing on the next flight home.

A senior US law enforcement official tells CBS News that the decision "was not solely based on tweets."

"And despite all these bad experiences, you still want to go to the United States?"

But with a permanent black mark against their names -- it may be a struggle to get back in.

"Yes, I love everything about America".

It's still unclear who called in the tip to Los Angeles International about two British 20- somethings with no criminal record, a call that began a night of what they consider pretty harsh treatment.

Officially, the Department of Homeland Security says they were denied entry because their visa waiver paperwork wasn't in order.

"I went, 'can I have a blanket or something?' and the only thing he offered me was an orange jump suit, which I said 'no thank you'." 

Held at a detention center with with inner city criminals, they got a quick lesson in life on the inside. 

And there was another contentious tweet. 

"If you're hungry and you go in McDonalds, you say I'm going to go 'destroy' a McDonalds or if you are going out to a night club, say the nightclub was called 'Caesars Palace', to get drunk, you say you're going to go destroy Caesars Palace'."

They say border patrol officers began grilling them about a tweet Leigh sent to friends before their trip.

It was the trip of a lifetime but for all the wrong reasons. Following a telephone tip off to US officials, when Leigh Bryan and Emily Banting stepped off the plane at LAX, the border patrol was waiting.