Tales from the dark side, Part II "Street Racers"

Hello all!

I figured that once or twice a month I would post a story about an event that happened while I was on duty.
All names have been changed, I might even change the name of a town, location etctec.
Might make for some good discussion, might open a can of worms, "Mods forgive me :bow: "

Two months ago I recieved a call from dispatch advising of a lady saying that a neighboring factory "abandoned" was be broken into. Complaintant stated from her porch she saw two subjects cut a fence and enter the compound. "problem in our area is that they break into to places like this to scanvenge for scrap metals"
I just happen to be a few blocks from said location.
I meet the sweet little lady, she gives me all her info and as backup is arriving I wiggle my way thru the opening in the fence.
About 5 minutes later I am walking I spot the glow of a red led light...gotcha...

I sneak up, blast him with my Stinger and order him down. "Crap! hands in pockets" Show me your hands!!!! He is at gunpoint.
He complys but still does not do as he is ordered, he starts to walk away.
Bad idea, after tackling him, cuffing and sitting him up I realize, "this is a kid!"

As I am interviewing him he denies that he has a buddy with him, that is until I hear that nifty little 2 way binered to his belt, "where you at!"
I grab the radio and proceed to explain to the second subject that he is surrounded, and needs to come out, hands in the air.
After a few minutes he realizes he is caught, and comes out.

"Well well well"
Gotcha both eh? I say to them.
They claim to "only" be explorers, urban explorers and laid no claim to have done anything "Illegal"

Hmm,
OK.
Fence is posted with NT signs.
You cut the fence to get in.
One of you might get popped with resisting.
It gets better.
I start searching the second kids bag, wires and pipe fittings!? all copper?!
He admits to taking them from the site.
First and original kid, has about of gram of Pot.
Both had prior arrests for "Urban exploring"
Youngest was 16 and the oldest was 17.

They were very well prepared, both had two ways, plenty of lights, mainly red led Inova X1'S, A Princeton tec surge and a Maxfire lx, "not bad lights guys" The dept will thank you for them.
They both had large military ruck's
They had water, power bars and enough evidence against them to hammer these "kids" :shakehead

Lesson here.

We, I, us cannot stop people from urban exploring, the draw of the unknown and all out curiosity will win over.
Be warned, if you are caught by the law, we have to assume the worst, trust me, I never wanted to pull a firearm on a kid, his actions and body language is what forced that action on him.
Once I realized his age I was furious.
Not just at him and his homeboy, but the parents.

If you explore, DO NOT TAKE, ALTER OR DEFACE OR DESTROY ANYTHING!
My best advice is just dont explore, its not worth the trouble it will get you into. as well, it is downright dangerous.

Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

I used to do a lot of this sort of thing when I was teenager (no such thing as the internet to help select cool flashlights in those days...only torches we used were mags and those military angle torches).

If it was old and abandoned me and my mates were in there!

I've gotta say, it was a great buzz wandering around dark mysterious buildings and quite often finding little dens within them where homeless folk had set up camp...bloody dangerous as well when I look back on it (not only from any mad homless people who we had one or two brushes with, but most of these places were structurally unsafe...put my foot through a roof once...damn near shat my pants...and one of my mates actually went through one up to his waist!).

Crazy times.


CFU

Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

I don't think you emphasized that part enough. The nightmare of many cops, discharging a weapon at a kid because they were arrogant and acted like a jerk with the right moves at the wrong time.

I think the whole subject of 'urban exploration' is rightfully being fairly restricted around here because of the various legal ramifications of the practice that can come into play. Not to mention the most obvious ones of trespass and/or burglary.

ohiocopper said:

I sneak up, blast him with my Stinger and order him down. "Crap! hands in pockets" Show me your hands!!!! He is at gunpoint.
He complys but still does not do as he is ordered, he starts to walk away.
Bad idea, after tackling him, cuffing and sitting him up I realize, "this is a kid!"

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Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

Brighteyez said:

I don't think you emphasized that part enough. The nightmare of many cops, discharging a weapon at a kid because they were arrogant and acted like a jerk with the right moves at the wrong time.

I think the whole subject of 'urban exploration' is rightfully being fairly restricted around here because of the various legal ramifications of the practice that can come into play. Not to mention the most obvious ones of trespass and/or burglary.

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Amen!

Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

Nah, those kids weren't urban explorers, they were just stupid punk thieves, who used 'exploration' as an excuse to justify their crimes to themselves. There's a code of "take only pictures, leave only footprints" that's well established among real urban explorers.

And as a side note, urban exploration does not, and should not, necessarily imply illegal activity. I consider myself a pretty active urban explorer (heck, I've been interviewed about my explorations by about a half-dozen newspapers and magazines from all over the world), and I do not break the law while exploring. This includes trespass laws. I think it's a shame that the 1% who get caught doing incredibly stupid stuff make the other 99% of us look bad.


(just my $0.02)

Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

I understand copper is a hot commodity right now. Thieves are stealing it from all over.

Interesting parallel, though, to real Spanish explorers who stole the gold of the American Indians in South and Central America.

In the real world, though 16 and 17 years old are long past childhood and potential deadly threats.

Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

Ah, "urban exporation" - I can remember the one time I got stopped - we were on the "old fort" section of an ACTIVE Army base (well, semi active). Now we had permission to be on the base, but they generally (except for occasional tours) kept folks out of the old fort due to a disticnt lack of things like safety rails...

Well, the Base Comander's son, myself, and a few other guys were haveing a nice snowball fight up on the "old fort" (hint - civil war era), when we came to a screaching halt... The head of the MP detachment was just standing there looking at us - He said "Mike" (name changed to protect the guilty), the base commanders son looked at the MP and said "Yes Sgt?" "You KNOW your not supposed to be in here" "Yes Sgt" "Do I have to tell your Dad?" "No Sgt" "OK - Let's go" We all left nice and quietly, while the Sgt regaled us with storys of some of the training drills they did in the old fort, while asking us tactical questions that they had had to solve during those drills. He was surprized that I got the right answers to most of them

Of course, about a year ago, the old Ft was handed over to the city, to turn into a park - putting up guard rails and the like. 80% of the rest of the base is now open to the public, there is a small reserve contingent, and NYC uses the rest for various training

Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

I believe the urban explorer credo is "take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints"

Anybody ripping anything off from a place doesn't count as one at all.

I also have a strong interest in wandering around and exploring places like this and so the stupid crooks make me mad too.

But then, anybody who doesn't stand very still and do EXACTLY as the officer pointing the gun at you asks is an IDIOT!

Realistically you can't expect not to be risking a trespassing arrest if you're going to do this kind of thing, but anything else you open yourself up to by steal a few bucks worth of copper just makes you a fool.

Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

Great replys so far!

I searched this forum for this topic before posting and knew that the ice was a little thin, meaning I knew the topic was a bit sensitive.

There are many venues I think that one can pursue to explore such places, however the issue of did a trespass occur or not can be a very grey area.

My advice is stay clear of posted area's, wandering onto unposted property may only result in being booted and warned.
Wandering onto posted property henceforth is illegal, sign already warned you.

My other advice is never ever do it alone, I helped on a electrocution call one nite, the guy survived but suffered major burns.
He was exploring a old country church, wandered into the basement which had about an inch of standing water....
When you go, everyone should have a cell phone and a good understanding of where you are at, and how to relay that info to Fire/EMS/Police, have a plan!

Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

Cheers to you officer! And cheers to those of you who respect the law when doing something like this!

Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

Oddjob said:

Cheers to you officer! And cheers to those of you who respect the law when doing something like this!

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Thanks and back at ya! :buddies:

Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

One of the most interesting articles I have ever read in the San Diego Weekly Reader was about scavengers on the Chocolate Mountain Bombing Range outside Yuma, Arizona. These guys pick up scrap metal, bombs and unexploded ordnance and sell it.

One bomb collector is an old three time Vietnam vet Marine, who claims to have killed five drug smugglers and armed competition (an AK 47 was mentioned). An un named government intelligence source (who, in the story used the slang particular to federal investigators) said that nobody was calling law enforcement to report the victims because of their illegal activities--drugs and illegal aliens. In other words, authorities turn a blind eye to this particular scrapper.

Another scrap collector claims to have seen his partners blown to nothing by unexploded cluster bombs. The writer describes him collecting scrap bombs to pay for meth and alcohol. The meth head claimed he was offered work as a human smuggler (probably true), but the writer suggests he was too dodgy to perform this work (also probably true).

Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

Around here an Urban Explorer is referred to as a Trespasser. I have some rural property that has some small caves & creeks that attract campers/geocachers. I used to not mind too much as long as no one left a mess but five years ago I was actually served a lawsuit ( it was later dismissed) by someone that fell and injured themselves. Even with fencing and no tresspassing signs some folks do not understand the concept of private property. As a property owner in today's lawsuit crazy environment you cannot afford to allow public access without risking getting sued. Guess I am a still kinda steamed since I spent half of last weekend gathering about 20 bags of trash from a popular geocaching location on my property.

Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

good job officer:goodjob: but why did you take away there flashlights?

Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

We have about 50 acres of land at the family farm, part of that land is bordered by a salt marsh, we have a family of 5-6 deer that come and go as they please, the land is posted *no tresspassing*, yet we have seen people riding 4-wheeler ATV's on our land, in the *marsh* (riding on marshland is illegal), completely ignoring the no trespassing signs

we've asked these riders to not ride on our land and were ignored, so one day i put together a "spike strip" (a small board covered with 3" nails) and buried it in the grass near the road where they ride onto our property a few feet in behind the "no trespassing" signs, where it'd be clear they *were* tresspassing.....

that afternoon i saw two riders *pushing* their quads back to their truck through the marsh

all four tires on each quad were *flat*....

we haven't had any tresspassers since

Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

I think you may have the terms "Urban Explorer" and "geocacher" confused.

BR549 said:

Around here an Urban Explorer is referred to as a Trespasser. I have some rural property that has some small caves & creeks that attract campers/geocachers.

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Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

I'd not broadcast that too loudly, as you may be exposed to civil liabilities if someone had stepped on one of those nails. And the use of booby traps is criminal in some area

MacTech said:

i put together a "spike strip" (a small board covered with 3" nails) and buried it in the grass near the road where they ride onto our property

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Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

Brighteyez said:

I'd not broadcast that too loudly, as you may be exposed to civil liabilities if someone. . .steped on those nails. . .the use of booby traps is criminal in some areas.

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I'd have to agree with that. As they say—"Speakeasy" now. . .

Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

benchmade_boy said:

good job officer:goodjob: but why did you take away there flashlights?

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One had drugs, the other had stolen property, lights were used as tools to commit said crimes. they lost quite a bit of stuff, the rucks, the radios etctec
Kind of like how your car can be siezed if you are caught using it to to buy/sell drugs.

Re: Tales from the dark side, Urban explorers

CHC said:

I'd have to agree with that. As they say—"Speakeasy" now. . .

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It is so easy to get into a liability issue.
We live in a very litigious society, folks make a lot of money on lawsuits.
Some dirtbags sue for a living, gotta be carefull!