People Keep Sneaking Into an Empty IBM Campus - and Then Getting Arrested (msn.com) 50
Since February, New York state police have arrested 48 people for trespassing on a former IBM campus in Somers, New York, reports the Wall Street Journal. 30 of the arrests were teenagers.
The long-vacant site has become a magnet for so-called urban explorers, who prowl abandoned malls, hospitals, power plants, amusement parks, factories and any other disused structure they can breach... [I]t's been turbocharged by artsy videos on Instagram and TikTok that spur others to create their own posts, luring still more curiosity seekers... In Somers, social-media images of the old IBM campus — a sprawling, pyramid-studded 1980s complex designed by the late I.M. Pei's firm — show dystopian scenes: busted windows, tossed rooms and graffitied walls. But they also give eerie glimpses of conference rooms and cubicles unchanged since IBM left a decade ago, as if employees had fled the daily grind one day and never returned...
One man in his mid-20s faces felony charges; police allege he had a loaded 9mm gun and took a Sony camera and power strip among other souvenirs. Andrew Proto, a defense lawyer, said "a 15-second clip" isn't worth a criminal record... Proto said he has represented or advised several minors arrested on the campus. The Somers town court clerk said some defendants received a 6-month "adjournment in contemplation of dismissal," meaning charges will be dropped and their arrest sealed if they avoid trouble. Some explorers who have posted about the IBM site say they follow an observe-and-preserve ethos and reject vandalism. They say they're driven by curiosity, the thrill of roaming forbidden spaces and a zeal to document discoveries — and that they're careful and know their limits.
"It actually gives me hope when I hear that kids are out there getting into trouble," says Bradley Garrett, a cultural geographer and author of the book "Explore Everything: Place-Hacking the City," about his own urbex adventures. He sees urban exploration as "a gateway drug in a good way, sometimes, into intellectual curiosity about history and culture." But Garrett said popular spots can be "loved to death" online — and then shut down, looted or set ablaze.
"Trespassers were blamed for a March 30 fire, reports a local newspaper, "that damaged one of the buildings and required volunteer firefighters to spend three hours extinguishing the blaze."
One man in his mid-20s faces felony charges; police allege he had a loaded 9mm gun and took a Sony camera and power strip among other souvenirs. Andrew Proto, a defense lawyer, said "a 15-second clip" isn't worth a criminal record... Proto said he has represented or advised several minors arrested on the campus. The Somers town court clerk said some defendants received a 6-month "adjournment in contemplation of dismissal," meaning charges will be dropped and their arrest sealed if they avoid trouble. Some explorers who have posted about the IBM site say they follow an observe-and-preserve ethos and reject vandalism. They say they're driven by curiosity, the thrill of roaming forbidden spaces and a zeal to document discoveries — and that they're careful and know their limits.
"It actually gives me hope when I hear that kids are out there getting into trouble," says Bradley Garrett, a cultural geographer and author of the book "Explore Everything: Place-Hacking the City," about his own urbex adventures. He sees urban exploration as "a gateway drug in a good way, sometimes, into intellectual curiosity about history and culture." But Garrett said popular spots can be "loved to death" online — and then shut down, looted or set ablaze.
"Trespassers were blamed for a March 30 fire, reports a local newspaper, "that damaged one of the buildings and required volunteer firefighters to spend three hours extinguishing the blaze."
He loved that thing! (Score:4, Funny)
I was just looking for Milton's Swingline stapler.
Fund stuff found in desks (Score:2)
I was just looking for Milton's Swingline stapler.
He took it home, it was not corporate issue. :-)
Seriously, I would love to explore such a facility to see what got left behind. My company rented some new office space, we moved in, it was already furnished with the previous occupant's cubicles. I found a Thinkpad and charger in a desk drawer. It became my Linux laptop for many years.
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*whoosh*
Police officer to trespasser (Score:2)
What would say it is that you are doing here?
Keep it illegal (Score:2)
But encourage prosecutors to use discretion. Kind of like jaywalking tickets if people arenâ(TM)t abusing it and if itâ(TM)s occurring rarely then give a scare/warning and let it go.
The secrets buried there (Score:3)
They don't want you to find the analog AI super computer they built in the 60's that made em write the warning "A COMPUTER CAN NEVER BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE, THEREFORE A COMPUTER MUST NEVER MAKE A MANAGEMENT DECISION", in all caps like that.
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s/COMPUTER/POLITICIAN/g
Translate the result to Latin. Chisel over the entrance to the Capitol building.
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P1?!? Is that you?
There are probably cooler old IBM sites to visit (Score:5, Informative)
That old Somers site has to be pretty picked over and vandalized by this point. Urban explorers should probably check out the old IBM data center in Southbury instead, which wasn't abandoned until late 2024.
I wonder if my old OS/2 mouse pad is still in the file cabinet where I left it...
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I sure would like to add a Model F keyboard to my IBM keyboard collection.
Estate Sales (Score:2)
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I didn't know IBM made Model F keyboards with a mouse stick.
All I have are various IBM Modem M keyboards with a mouse stick and another without a keypad.
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Just be careful; a few old IBM sites had toxic waste problems. It sounds like they were just turning off the lights and water and walking away from these.
One woild hope everything was remediated but I wouldn't bet my own safety on it.
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Are you referring to the Apple Orchard? I know most of the sites that had manufacturing fall into the toxic category, but my fuzzy memory is that you worked around there.
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I have done work in some former IBM sites, and even the very old ones can be quite interesting. (As an architecture nerd I would enjoy exploring an IM Pei building though.) Only problem is they are abandoned because of hazmat and ground remediation is a ~75-year process.
Good video (Score:5, Informative)
Here’s a good video about the site. It’s rather impressive. https://youtu.be/DjQ2PAgUcM8?i... [youtu.be]
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Great video, thanks for posting it.
Somewhere between post apocalypse and Shining.
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Cool video, but a different IBM location.
Why doesnâ(TM)t IBM charge admissions? (Score:2)
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See the leaning tower of NY at 161 Maiden Lane [wikipedia.org] for when no one wants to admit they still own the land and building and can't afford to do anything with it and no one else wants the expense of fixing.
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It would lost all appeal. Same if they just open it out and only required 'liability release' on entry.
Becareful, you might catch COBOL (Score:2)
I Explored Em'! (Score:5, Interesting)
I explored IBM campuses LONG before they were defunct. I was there when people roamed them halls and tunnels.
I had blueprints, and plans and I knew all the hidey holes.
Pretty much, physically boring. Tunnels were only for the pipes and wires. No big secrets or bunkers.
The only interesting stuff was on the raised floor; who was doing what and where.
That's all virtually gone. Not worth getting arrested anymore for that stuff in an old IBM data center. Its all in a different data center now.
--
A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots. - Quote Marcus Garvey
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Not worth getting arrested anymore for that stuff in an old IBM data center.
No one is getting arrested because they are looking for cool secrets. Urban explorers are urban explorers, they simply like exploring things. There's a whole group of people who see the decay of civilisation as a hobby to look at. And based on the video I saw, this campus has a LOT to offer those people.
Aren't guns legal? (Score:1)
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Keep telling yourself that when you form a gun-toting militia and y'all go marching down main street shoving the Constitution in everyone's faces (including that nice police officer). Make sure to have someone record the whole thing... need a good laugh.
Re: Aren't guns legal? (Score:3)
Re:Aren't guns legal? (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah, that's why they mentioned the ancient Sony camera he lifted.
"Crime with a gun" is a separate crime according to NY.
SCOTUS will strike those down eventually. It's like saying "crime while praying" if it's a right.
Obviously he wasn't using the gun to jack a Betacam. He was probably worried about crackheads in there for the copper.
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Probably has something to do with having a gun while committing a crime.
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think carrying the firearm was legal... but carrying a gun in the commission of another crime (trespassing) strips you of the right/protections and makes it part of that crime. (This is assuming that the person was legally allowed to own/carry the gun, and the gun was legal too (registered, etc) and no laws pertaining to carrying a gun were broken...)
sorry for posting as AC.. but some dip shit has been down voting all my posts because i hurt his ego.
the abandoned stuff...why is it never collected? (Score:2)
I get that the ancient (32-bit) PC computers are pretty much worthless now and that's mostly all of interest in the old IBM sites (wondering what the current state of the Sloatsburg location near NY 17/17A in Orange County is like - I drive past it at least once a year).
What gets me are the schools more than the malls or offices - all this talk of teachers having to buy school supplies (and now no longer getting a tax break for it), and yet every one of these buildings we see the reels walk through are full
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32 bit machines are worth a boat load now due to nostalgia and vintage gamers. You should see what a beige 386 clone fetches on ebay these days.
Attractive nuisance (Score:2)
Although NY does not adhere to this standard, and these generally aren't kids, it still seems like a form of attractive nuisance. If they actually cared about the property they'd use it or maintain it. So either do that or sell it. Otherwise, unless someone does something stupid, like arson, let it go.
Easy way to keep people out (Score:2)
Paint the walls yellow, put down yellow carpeting, and fill the place with flickering, humming fluorescent lights. Nobody will venture through.
Hey IBM (Score:2)
If you aren't going to actively use/maintain the property you own then you don't get to keep it.
took a Sony camera and power strip among other souvenirs
For all intents and purposes, none of this stuff is owned by IBM anymore.
Reverse H1B's (Score:1)
nuf sed
Secret looting in Chicago (Score:2)
It takes only one arsehole to ruin it for everybody.
I remember an article, a few years ago, revealing that abandoned buildings in Chicago were being looted, to the point that wires and copper pipes were being cut out of the walls.
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Trespassers !!! See this on YT all the time ! (Score:2)
No idea who owns it (Score:2)
If they are getting police to show up to secure the property it is more than I get here when I call. By the time the police arrive if I'm not home, theives could strip the place. And I pay my property taxes and some stupid alarm fee, which circles back to the police get here when they get h
Housing for the homeless (Score:2)
Why not let them in and sort things out for themselves?
Unemployed zombies (Score:2)