Six Reasons Why Abandoned Places Get Thrashed

Sealed Emergency Exit


LOCATION ADDRESS: This is the biggest reason why abandoned places get vandalized, thrashed and god forbidids burned to the ground in a 3-alarm fire. Having the location present on the Internet for the entire world to see subjects the property to untold traffic. This traffic is either noticed by the relevant owner(s) or local law enforcement. Either the owner(s) fearing liability for injured persons on his property, pays for fencing surrounding the property and boarding up of the buildings against squatters, homeless persons, vandals, and local and nonresident teenagers. If the owner(s) cannot be found for whatever reasons, the state or local town would either own the property through condemnation possession by the previous or present owner(s) not paying the tax bill that is due regardless of inactivity or inactivity. Then, they secure the property as well to limit liability.


Book Room



LOCATION NAMING: Naming the location is tantamount to giving out the physical address. Sometimes that is not always the case. A few places I have researched based on old names the property may have had through the years can lead to dead ends. However, with strong Google-fu searching, you are able to find the address of the location with ease. A very well-known explorer from New Jersey actually makes up names of locations he visits to protect the identity of the site from vandalism and destruction. You would be surprised at the amount of destruction a property can go from one year to the next as it becomes increasingly popular online. The only way to find these locations is through the tidbits of historical information explorers leave online. Once, an explorer dropped the unfinished costs of a mega-church that is becoming more and more popular, I found the site with a few Google search results in a matter of twenty minutes. Finding the address was a different story because the church name brought up the present address of the religious institution.


Chemical Plant Room



DEVELOPMENT: As you know the lust for real estate developers knows no bounds or some local careered politician wants a flashy news conference detailing an upcoming housing project for the community. Sooner or later, a developer or a real estate consortium with enough deep pockets and political lobbying is able to remedy and rehabilitate either the contaminated property or demo the property too costly to rehabilitate into the next glass edifice tower of penile power. Once development plans become concrete. Get it? I'll get my coat...securing the property is inevitable and a third-party contracting security service is employed until remediation/abatement is complete (especially if the property contained chemicals, asbestos, lead paint/dust, or a former brown site) or demolition permit is approved. A few years back the old Domino Sugar Refinery in Brooklyn actually hosted a party inside the premises!


A very messy hospital room.


VANDALISM: The second biggest pet peeve of them all is the wanton destruction of abandoned places. Usually, long before urban explorers visit, graffiti artists seem to be the first explorers inside the sites. After, urban explorers come through, invariably in between them and others, destruction freaks as I like to call them come in and obliterate the place. Nothing like an untouched place to take out all your frustrations. These visible and highly noticeable signs broadcast themselves eventually to law enforcement and owners who thereby patrol the area daily making the site inaccessible to other explorers. As an urban explorer, you come in unnoticed and leave unnoticed. The only thing you should be leaving behind is your footprints. Not your anger issues or destruction fetishes. Keep those behind closed doors Timmy!





THEFT: Either by the known physical location address on the Internet or local observation, metal thieves bring with them wanton destruction as well. Some places contain highly valuable metals such as copper piping, electrical wiring, and generic steel. In addition, scrapping for these precious metals also contaminates the site with asbestos and lead dust. These metals highly valuable as a commodity become prized by local thieves and shady metal scrappers looking for the next buck. These metal thieves trash the property so badly that owner(s) who may have wanted to either sell or fix up the place eventually cannot anymore due to the callous material theft causing untold property damage. Not only criminal trespassing but depending on the local laws could amount to felony theft or even grand larceny which is sometimes at the level of a felony.




YOUTUBE: The advent of it was just a prank bro videos have now surged into abandoned videos plus 24/7 Walmart overnight forts. The popular channels all over Europe and America have spawned a ton of anonymous descriptive places online, so much so that many people now are into urban exploration than ever before. Just like Michael Phelps inspired a generation of swimmers, the Harry Potter books pet owl purchases, and the Hunger Games inspiring archery, so too have abandoned videos inspiring many to go out and explore these places. A few weeks ago, I drove by an abandoned village nestled between an encroaching golf course, and to my surprise a young couple had parked their Fast & Furious white Mitsubishi Lancer in front of the property. Looking into their smartphone and talking amongst themselves, they headed down to the property without a care in the world. Suffice it to say, I drove to a local 7/11 a mile away and came back hoping they were gone, only to find out that security had shown up and probably told them to leave. At this site, the public can walk around the grounds but cannot enter any of the buildings even though the buildings are wide open. They had inadvertently blown up the spot to my untimely demise.


So for all you intrepid and mesmerized explorers out there, keep abandoned places close to your chest.

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