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UER Forum > UE Main > Strange Stories about Strangers? (Viewed 13423 times)
Guybrush 


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I am Guybrush Threepwood, mighty UrbExer

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Strange Stories about Strangers?
< on 12/16/2015 7:39 PM >
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I love reading UER posts where creepy unexpected things happen, kinda like that 'Oh shit' moment thread. Can we get a thread going just of who you've met once inside an abandonment?

Not just weirdos, but like:


  • Property Owners
  • Other Explorers
  • Graffiti Artists
  • Police / Security
  • Hobos
  • Squaters
  • Meth Cooks, etc...
  • Gangsters


Curious if anybody has interesting stories regarding meeting up with people once completely inside.

I'll start with one: We were draining a large, mile long storm water tunnel at night. We thought nobody would be down there, but eventually we hear what we think are voices at the far end. Not too creepy either, just regular chatter. We decided to keep going forward and say hi to them if they are, infact, in the tunnel with us.

Now keep in mind that it's pitch black expect for our flashlights, and this is a looong tunnel, you can't see from end-to-end.

Eventually we see flashlights, and confirm we're not alone, but we press on. Eventually we can see the shape of their figures, but they're still far away - can't see facial details.

Suddenly we hear them scream "___ ___ Police. Stop where you are!" Now, the two guys I was with each had priors of various sorts, so they booked it. I didn't want to deal with cops (or people impersonating cops) alone, and I didn't want to be forced to rat on my friends either, so I ran too.

I'm not exactly in shape, and running in a pitch black tunnel, that we were over a half-mile deep into, is a total nightmare scenario. How long would they chase? Would I have to run the entire 0.6 miles? Would they have cars waiting on the other end making the run pointless?

After this thread hits 10 replies, I'll post the ending to this dramatic cliff hanger...





KASTRAX 


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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 1 on 12/16/2015 8:53 PM >
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I've wanted to tell this for so long, but no threads made sense.

In the first exploration I ever did (Linseed Oil Mills), I got in through a basement window with the grating off. I brought the worst flashlight ever, so I could hardly see. All of the sudden, I turn a corner and there's this posse of little kids. Not teenagers, but a group of about ten eight year olds. They then proceeded to give me a guided tour of part of the building until one of them said that they all needed to go back home. I haven't experienced anything like that since.




EsseXploreR 


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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 2 on 12/16/2015 9:14 PM >
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Just recently I was in Newark checking out an abandoned high school. We made it past the fence, but everything on the first floor was sealed up. Looking around, My buddy noticed a ledge leading up to a second floor rooftop. There were several open windows there, so I hopped up to look over at the parking lot next to the school. It was empty. So as I turned back towards my buddy, I said "Hey man we are all clear on this si..." I cut myself off. Standing on the roof was a middle aged white guy, just staring at me. I immediately hopped off the ledge and told my friend we needed to leave now. He never saw the guy, so he didn't understand why I was so frantic. The whole time he didn't say a word or move a muscle.

I also had a similar experience at the Overbrook hospital. Except I didn't see the guy, despite him being just a few feet in front of me. Arms crossed, and standing a good 4 or 5 inches taller than myself. My friends, who did see the man, informed me he was there when we were in the stairwell heading up.

Sometimes I wish the people would just say something.




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Piecat 


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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 3 on 12/16/2015 9:35 PM >
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Me and a friend were checking out Solvay Coke in Milwaukee for the first time. It was starting to get dark when we arrived, but we decided to check it out anyways.

On our way in we saw an older gentleman taking pictures. He greeted us and told us about the place, which put us at ease. We check out the second story, the lab, and the roof before we decide we should head back until the next morning.

On our way out, this group of hooded sweatshirts are riding at us on their bicycles. My friend and I froze and just looked at each other. They were coming right at us, too fast for us to run. I thought they wanted to rob us, but as they rolled in, I realized they were about 10 years old.

These 4 kids greet us and offer to give us a guided tour. We accepted, and they showed us around the place. One of the kids kept climbing up above the second story and would jump down (~30 feet) onto a pile of old mattresses on the old machine-shop floor.

There were heroin needles, rusty metal, and junk everywhere. Dangerous as hell for these kids...




Darthbindy 


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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 4 on 12/16/2015 9:35 PM >
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I've ran into a few people, in a few situations:

I was on a shortish building, walking along a sort of crevice that divided the roof (with one story walls on either side), and suddenly see two faces peering down at me. Both of us thought we had been busted at first, but after saying "explorers?" they came down and we had a very short conversation before they left.

I also ran into some people in one of Toronto's tallest abandonments. We had been going up to the roof, and we just sort of merged until we got there. They (unfortunately) began painting, and we got a few pictures from the top and then left.

I've had close calls with running into police, and have run into multiple guards, but so far haven't gotten any tickets =)

Why not just finish your story now though, breaking it up like that'll make it a pain to read (reading one part, having to scroll through 10 replies to see the rest), and I'm pretty curious what happened




blackhawk 

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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 5 on 12/16/2015 10:01 PM >
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Posted by EsseXploreR

Sometimes I wish the people would just say something.


Why should they say anything? It's not like you're all part of the same club.
One of the biggest reasons I prefer to explore alone; no chatter. You can hear people talking a long ways off; you dime yourself out. More than once noisy explorers have walked right by me as I stood in the shadows. Some close enough to touch.

I scared off a few kids who were going into the tunnels at Pennhurst once. It was getting late in they day so I knew they most likely weren't there to shoot. They were about 100 feet away. Wasn't in the mood for kids, I was pissed. When they started coming in, talking up a storm, I banged a steel door with my foot. They got quiet, then started venturing in again. I made a louder bang. They go quiet and are talking in hashed tones and I can make out some of what they are saying. Now it's funny. I let out a low moan, and they were gone. Peace and quiet to splore... boo!



[last edit 12/16/2015 10:01 PM by blackhawk - edited 1 times]

Just when I thought I was out... they pulled me back in.
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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 6 on 12/16/2015 10:09 PM >
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Posted by blackhawk


Why should they say anything? It's not like you're all part of the same club.
One of the biggest reasons I prefer to explore alone; no chatter. You can hear people talking a long ways off; you dime yourself out. More than once noisy explorers have walked right by me as I stood in the shadows. Some close enough to touch.

I scared off a few kids who were going into the tunnels at Pennhurst once. It was getting late in they day so I knew they most likely weren't there to shoot. They were about 100 feet away. Wasn't in the mood for kids, I was pissed. When they started coming in, talking up a storm, I banged a steel door with my foot. They got quiet, then started venturing in again. I made a louder bang. They go quiet and are talking in hashed tones and I can make out some of what they are saying. Now it's funny. I let out a low moan, and they were gone. Peace and quiet to splore... boo!


I can only hope that at some point I'll be in a position to freak some up to no good people out if only you had a hidden camera to catch their reaction.




blackhawk 

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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 7 on 12/16/2015 10:44 PM >
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Posted by Darthbindy


I can only hope that at some point I'll be in a position to freak some up to no good people out if only you had a hidden camera to catch their reaction.



I don't think they were vandals. Just teenagers looking for ghosts.
Lol, they got lucky!




Just when I thought I was out... they pulled me back in.
shadowedsmile 


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mines always on the mind

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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 8 on 12/16/2015 10:46 PM >
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Long story short, I was out in 2009 to check out an "obviously" abandoned house outside of Peterborough, ON. Shutters were falling off, and everything was in a general state of disrepair, which became even more obvious as I entered the house - raccoon poop everywhere, peeling paint, cobwebs, etc. However, a neatly divided pile of cigarette butts and banana peels with some fresh pieces outside left me a bit unsettled. Onwards I went....


I thought it was super bizarre only one bedroom was furnished in the entire upstairs, and hadn't fallen victim to animals, although the ceiling drywall had come off and was leaving drippings on the pillows of the bed.

Chasing Shadows 6 by Julie Douglas, on Flickr

I thought I had heard a cough, but after a few minutes dismissed it. Then heard footsteps coming up the back staircase, and ran out the front and back around to get my car. An old man appeared on my way around, hunched over and drooling, yelling things I couldn't understand. It was something out of a horror movie. I apologized, and ran back to my car and left, wondering what the hell just happened.

It wasn't until the fall of 2013 that I would find out he had died, and finally be able to return. There were clues left behind about why he was living in such conditions - tons of medications including some for dementia, someone had installed a shower and toilet next to the kitchen on the main floor for accessibility...I never did learn why he would be in such poor conditions if someone was checking in on him, though.

Chasing Shadows 5 by Julie Douglas, on Flickr

On one of my return visits, I ended up seeing a truck coming up the driveway very similar to the one that was there when I had encountered the old man....Luckily it was just the new owners, who were confused but once I explained myself they chatted with me for a bit. They have since been using the fields for farming and have been working on the house.




"Adventure is the respectful pursuit of trouble." - Expedition Overland
mookster 


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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 9 on 12/16/2015 11:05 PM >
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A couple of years ago I was over in Belgium with a group of people on a long weekend tour of derelict locations. We checked out this random house in a small ish town and after clambering through the window to get in, saw the house was filled with rubbish and general crap. We went upstairs and pushed a door open to find a young guy casually sat on the bed watching a film on a shiny MacBook, he grunted something at us and we left pretty quick as it was a small house and it just wasn't a comfortable feeling as you can imagine!




yoyo 


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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 10 on 12/16/2015 11:47 PM >
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My friend and I were exploring a skyscraper in Chicago. We stepped into the lobby and saw an electrical cord popping and hissing..My buddy climbed onto a ladder to investigate. I suddenly realized that someone was standing next to me. It was a young black man, probably working security. My friend came down off the ladder, and made small talk like a pro, then casually asked "would you like to smoke one, or should we just go?" The dude was flummoxed, so we wandered off and heard him yell after us..Probably my favorite exploring story, pardon the telling..




Darthbindy 


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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 11 on 12/17/2015 2:06 AM >
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Posted by shadowedsmile
It wasn't until the fall of 2013 that I would find out he had died, and finally be able to return. There were clues left behind about why he was living in such conditions - tons of medications including some for dementia, someone had installed a shower and toilet next to the kitchen on the main floor for accessibility...I never did learn why he would be in such poor conditions if someone was checking in on him, though.


Damn that's sad I'm really wondering what the story was with whoever was allowing him to live in those conditions.




shadowedsmile 


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mines always on the mind

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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 12 on 12/17/2015 3:45 AM >
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Posted by Darthbindy


Damn that's sad I'm really wondering what the story was with whoever was allowing him to live in those conditions.


Me too. It stuck with me for a very long time, and still sort of does. It was four years between my visits to that house and I always wondered and worried about the old man I encountered, and felt bad for intruding on him.




"Adventure is the respectful pursuit of trouble." - Expedition Overland
Dayman 


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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 13 on 12/17/2015 6:45 AM >
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I've yet to really encounter any strangers that aren't like little juvenile delinquents. They are typically pretty friendly. They either wanna tag along or want to show me around or want me to get high with them. I usually just leave and come back later.

One time when I was like 14 or 15, I was exploring an abandoned pool and a kid decided to tag along. He was like 10. He wanted his picture taken with me and my friends. We went along with it and sent it to his facebook(because it felt rude not to). After that he messaged me all the time on facebook for over a year asking me what I was doing or if I wanted to hangout. I was too much older than him to hangout with him and I told him that after giving up on getting him to stop talking to me by always telling him I was busy. I eventually just ignored his messages and he eventually got really mad and unfriended me. That was probably 2 years after I met him. Like he was kind of rude in the first place anyways, but I've always kind of felt bad for him b/c it's pretty fair to assume there wasn't anybody at home paying enough attention to him and that's not his fault. He's probably the lonely, rude kid he is b/c nobody taught him how to act.

I feel that way about alot of kids I run into exploring. Theres the likes of the hoard of 10-13 year olds that pulled the plywood off a window and asked me if I wanted to come partake in some "weed stuff" with them, and then theres the likes of a group of a handful of 10-12 year olds(who I met at the same place, on a different visit) that flagged me down and asked me if I wanted to watch them run up this slanted, cement, support pylon to get on the roof of the church, and proceeded to do so before I got the chance to respond. I just left with the first group b/c it'd be stupid to stay around but I did stay briefly to watch the kids scale the pylon, hoping they didnt fall and acting like I'd never gotten up there the same way before. I wouldn't be in this hobby if as a kid, I hadn't felt the need to go somewhere to get away or because I didn't have anybody around to stop me from wandering off. It makes me feel pretty shitty wondering what might of led them there.

But atleast I have the times where I've been asked if I'm a narc at amazingly stupid times, to cheer me up. Like the time I was on top of a ladder trying to remove broken glass from a broken second story window I found, and a group of kids came around the corner and asked me if I was a narc...because yes, of course I am. And the time I walked into a wide open abandonment and these high schoolers or fellow college freshmen yelled "What's up?! We're smoking weed!" and after I said okay and proceed to walk by they asked me if I was a narc.




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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 14 on 12/17/2015 3:12 PM >
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mookster 


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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 15 on 12/17/2015 7:12 PM >
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Couple more that I can remember...

A few years ago I was exploring a huge old iron ore foundry that used to produce brake discs and other nasty things for Ford, it was my second visit showing a group of others around so I was letting them see all the good bits when we caught sight of a couple of other people inside just wandering around kind of aimlessly. We kept our distance but ended up running right into them in the old waste incinerator area, both of them were drugged out of their heads on something and one was very paranoid we were going to be taking photos of him, they eventually slinked off into the darkness and we didn't see them again. Soon after that security showed up as we had managed to trip a handful of alarms dotted around the outside and we sat on the roof watching the guy reset them all.

When I was in America in September me and a group of friends went to an old shoe factory, and while inside heard some shouting outside. We peeked out a window and saw a group of eight or nine kids running around a demolished part with nerf guns, when I say kids I mean real kids the oldest must have been no more than ten years old. They thought we were ghosts and were running around scared as hell, so we went down and introduced ourselves to them.



[last edit 12/17/2015 7:14 PM by mookster - edited 1 times]

telefontubbie 


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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 16 on 12/17/2015 9:03 PM >
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Once i was sitting on a rooftop with a friend, drinking coffee and then a French tourist showed up with fancy camera. He said he saw us moving ladders so he thought it's OK to join us for a while.
- - -
Geocachers. Of course. They're like, everywhere.
- - -
Party people around 3:00 AM, asking if they can join to smoke shisha pipe on a rooftop.
- - -
Some sort of a cable men - if i see them, i go inside the house and ask if i can walk a little bit on a rooftop and take photos. It's a tip for exploring So i am the one who disturbs them.Because they have keys to the rooftop, here all commieblocks has some sort of communication cables that connects one building with another.
- - -
Junkie with crazy gipsian wife on a rooftop. Weird but i live in a neighborhood where are lots of junkies and gipsies.
- - -
Scrappers,loads of episodes which one ended with cops,too.
- - -
Very kind housewife who allowed us to explore rooftop after midnight. At first we thought she will be angry and insist us to leave but she smiled and said "you can be there as long as you want but don't make much noise, bye kids"

Nothing really weird.





[last edit 12/17/2015 9:05 PM by telefontubbie - edited 1 times]

blackhawk 

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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 17 on 12/17/2015 9:47 PM >
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Posted by 2Xplorations
http://www.uer.ca/....asp?storyid=11017


Great story. Texas has some of the damnedest strange critters you can shake a stick at. Ain't no fixing Texas stupid, but it can be fun at times.




Just when I thought I was out... they pulled me back in.
mookster 


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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 18 on 12/17/2015 10:16 PM >
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Posted by telefontubbie

- - -
Geocachers. Of course. They're like, everywhere.
- - -


Me and my friend accidentally stumbled across a geocache tucked under a bench on a path behind an abandoned hotel in Virginia, that was pretty cool actually.




Guybrush 


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I am Guybrush Threepwood, mighty UrbExer

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Re: Strange Stories about Strangers?
< Reply # 19 on 12/18/2015 2:48 AM >
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Wow, I like where this thread is going! Lots of great stories so far. The Good Ol' Boys was a good read. Also the old guy living in an abandonment freaks me out a little.

Posted by KASTRAX
All of the sudden, I turn a corner and there's this posse of little kids. Not teenagers, but a group of about ten eight year olds. They then proceeded to give me a guided tour of part of the building until one of them said that they all needed to go back home.


Posted by Piecat
On our way out, this group of hooded sweatshirts are riding at us on their bicycles. My friend and I froze and just looked at each other. They were coming right at us, too fast for us to run. I thought they wanted to rob us, but as they rolled in, I realized they were about 10 years old.


Posted by Dayman
I feel that way about alot of kids I run into exploring. Theres the likes of the hoard of 10-13 year olds that pulled the plywood off a window and asked me if I wanted to come partake in some "weed stuff" with them, and then theres the likes of a group of a handful of 10-12 year olds(who I met at the same place, on a different visit) that flagged me down and asked me if I wanted to watch them run up this slanted, cement, support pylon to get on the roof of the church, and proceeded to do so before I got the chance to respond.


Posted by Mookster
We peeked out a window and saw a group of eight or nine kids running around a demolished part with nerf guns, when I say kids I mean real kids the oldest must have been no more than ten years old


Wow, suddenly I feel like I'm three times the median age of an Urban Explorer. Why wasn't I doing this when I was 10? Haha. I'm surprised to see young kids be a theme in this thread.

Posted by Telefontubbie
Geocachers. Of course. They're like, everywhere.


I geocache too, when not urban-exing. It's fun because it can be done randomly when you're in a new part of town. There's so many around...

Posted by Mookster
A couple of years ago I was over in Belgium with a group of people on a long weekend tour of derelict locations. We checked out this random house in a small ish town and after clambering through the window to get in, saw the house was filled with rubbish and general crap. We went upstairs and pushed a door open to find a young guy casually sat on the bed watching a film on a shiny MacBook, he grunted something at us and we left pretty quick as it was a small house and it just wasn't a comfortable feeling as you can imagine!


Oh man, that's so weird... So was it just an occupied house that the owners left filthy? Or just a super casual sqautter?




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