Help out some fellow explorers.
If you wish to help these guys then there is a link at the bottom. At the very least you'll be able to read an amazing story.
Doug.
Posted by Urban Downfall on UER >here<
Location: Montréal - Qc
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 479 likes
Hey everyone,
Where do i start...
Three weeks ago, me and my explore partner Decayed_State came to the US and got caught, shot at, assaulted, robbed and charged with a felony, twice in the same week and are under investigation.
This is the story im gonna tell, both to seek your help and to bring awareness about never take for granted how well a situation seems to be.
I'm a fairly low profile guy and don't post most of my work, either here or on social media.
I also never ask for help and manage my problems on my own.
Most of you know me as the Broomman ,for my photo series that i update here, or for the annual meetup i'm holding each year in Montreal.
That being said, i'm really doing more than only broom pictures, i document professionally the locations i visit, inside out.
I have been actively practicing urban exploration for 13 years now and I have always known the risks and taken my responsibilities facing off the multiple arrests or charges brought against me. Fortunately, after more than 400 places explored I have never had to face justice except once in Canada, which ended in absolution, therefore complete withdrawal of charges.
Having said that, I could never have predicted recent events.
Many know me, I take precautions, I don't break anything, I don't steal anything, I do everything in the rule of art.
(I sometimes take papers but it stops there)
I like to think i am a fairly seasoned and skilled explorer who have values and a strong work ethic.
Even imagining the worst or basing myself on decades of experience and history from other explorers, we couldn't have predicted how it turned out.
Normally, with a little social engineering, we get out of 99% of situations with a warning or an arrest without legal action.
Me and my exploring partner Decayed State, waited for the borders of the United States to open for more than a year and a half to do what was going to be our best and biggest road trip ever.
So I'll tell you in detail the turn of events and why I'm going to need your help.
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We had planned about 60 locations in over 25 states, from Vermont to Louisiana up to Kansas.
The first week went well and with no failures.
The next place we had to explore is a decades-long abandoned theater.
We had invited 3 friends residing in the US who had not explored it.
In the morning we go there and we enter.
We see that the ground floor of the theater and the old lobby are now used as storage for cars and other things bunched up, probably belonging to the owner of the adjacent clothing stores.
So we decide not to go to these parts, anyway there is nothing to shoot there.
About 2 hours pass and our friends have finished shooting so they decide to go out, they have to open and close a garage door.
We had arranged for them to be really careful and take a good look before going out, which they do.
Unfortunately just as they come out they hear a voice from inside yelling at them that they are not allowed to be there.
They continue walking in the street, the person is not following them.
So they text us what has just happened, me and Ludo are at the top of the theater at the level of the projection room.
After a few minutes our fear becomes reality, the lights on the ground floor come on.
We are therefore going to hide in the projection room, hoping that people will leave.
A couple minutes pass and the lights go out, we wait a bit and we end up slowly descending from the projection room and waiting again, behind the chairs at the highest level.
A few moments later we see a woman come out of the center of the side stairs, which run the length of the theater to the bottom floor.
Seconds later, she sees us and starts screaming, completely petrified, as if she saw a ghost. She screams in a way I can't describe, so loud and panicked.
For several seconds she just screems while looking at us, without moving, then she starts to say "they are there!", "They have guns!" "quick!" to someone else downstairs.
We, as soon as we saw her, was saying calmly, trying to pierce her cries, "don't worry", "we are photographer, don't worry!", "Sorry", "don't be scared, we are unarmed ".
I light myself up using my flashlight, with my arms in the air, showing her my camera so that she sees that I am not threatening but nothing helps, she still screams loudly.
I move sideways slowly towards her, who hadn't moved, so that she can see me well, so I come up to the stairs facing her, she is about 60 feet in front of me.
A guy emerges from behind her just as angry and screaming.
I barely have time to see him and say once again "not to worry" that the guy raise a gun and shoots me at point blank range, he's face to face with me.
I see the flash and in my head nothing makes sense, I tell myself, in like slow motion (but why does he shoots me with a pellet gun ?!). It's like it wasn't a real option for my brain that I could have been shot.
This all goes in micro seconds before I realize that I really just dodged a bullet in the face.
I don't have much time to run away or move when the guy runs up the stairs towards me and orders us to get down on the ground, which we do without hesitation.
He is enraged as I have rarely seen and nothing that can be said seems to calm him down.
He yells at me to tell him where my friends are gone and call them, tell him where the guns are.
He empties my pockets and takes my keys, cell and asks for my code, meanwhile two other guys just as enraged arrive, one is with Ludo and him also empties his pockets.
The guy with the gun gets impatient because I can't remember my code so he puts the gun to my temple and pushes my head against the ground so hard I feel the barrel retract.
I can't remember my code and I tell them my friends are long gone.
The other guy asks me where my car is and I don't know how to explain to him so he gives me a big kick in the ribs enough for me to lift in the air, then puts his foot on me pushing, the other is still there pointing at me with his gun, they are enraged, I tell them I can't breathe they tell me "we don't care motherfucker" and other things in what seems to be Arab.
If I ever move my head slightly they get angry more and tell me not to look at them, all I see is feet, I see the girl come back with a big miner's pickaxe and I see her lifting her ready to go kick me in the chest but luckily the guy stops him with a wave of his hand.
All I want at this point is for the police to come, but I don't see them calling the police, they seem to want to sort it out themselves and I don't know if I'm going to get out alive.
I remain calm, however, continuing to try to calm them down in a calm tone.
He throws my cell in front of me asking me to call my friends again, I manage to unlock it by extending my arm and touching the fingerprint.
Moments later, I see a bunch of police feet arriving.
Never have I been so happy to see the police coming to arrest me.
They handcuffs me and lifts me up, I have trouble breathing and walking.
I beg them to get my cell, my keys and my photo gear that the owners took.
They put us in 2 separate cars. I ask for at least 30 minutes that they confirm to me that they have recovered our things, they tell us yes yes don't worry.
They bring me to the hospital where I spend about 18 hours, they discover that I have 3 broken ribs and a perforated lung.
My friend was detained at the police station for 7 hours and let him go, he no longer had cell phone or means of transport, nor the keys to the hotel which remained in the car which was towed to be searched.
Throughout the time I am in the hospital, I ask about ten times for news of my friend, who is left to his own in the streets. They don't give me any information.
An investigator from the high crimes department comes to the hospital to question me and have me tell them on video what happened.
All this time I thought that the owners had the right to shoot because it was on their property and it is there that the investigator told me that he is precisely there for that and not my misdeed.
They had neither the right to shoot nor the right to touch us.
He tells me that none of their stories make sense and that they deny hitting or shooting at me.
After the interrogation he tells me that the only story that makes sense is mine.
During this time, my friend managed to get to the hotel, come back and contact our friends on my laptop who had stayed there.
Our friends from the US have come to join him.
When we both got out and got the car back we returned to the station to get our gear. After several police stations and searches, they did not have our cameras / tripods or our cells. The only option is that it had been left with the owners.
So we asked to be escorted back to the theater to collect our gear.
The police warned us that if they didn't want to give it to us we couldn't do anything.
So we got there, the police spoke with them for several minutes until he called for us, they opened the door for us and asked to get our gear "where we had left it".
I knew it wouldn't be there.
I then asked the owner if they had it, he was just looking as us arrogantly, without speaking. The police ended up saying "well, they don't have it, we have to go". If you want your stuff you are going to have to bring them to the civil court.
In the following days we went to make a complaint to the internal affairs of the police for having mishandled the intervention and for having left our gear with the owners even after dozens of requests.
The policeman literally lectured me and tried to dissuade me by telling me that as soon as my stuff went through the door I couldn't prove that it was mine and that now it belongs to them, that the police couldn't know what or not belonged to us.
I ended up getting angry and telling him to take my complaint, he ended up doing it.
So we have to sue them in civil court if we want to have our gear back and to sue them for physical and mental damage.
We have both been accused of "burglary" which is a felony therefore in the highest type of crimes, so, very serious within the meaning of the law.
Our defense would probably cost around $10,000 each, because you can't have the same lawyer for conflict of interest.
My medical expenses total $9,200.
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Thanks to my friends Michael, Bryan and Ryan who came to our rescue and hosted us for a week while we finished the procedure and get back on our feet a bit.
They literally financed me a new camera and lens and they loaned D-C a camera and lens, so we could continue our road trip.
Yes, we wanted to continue because in 10+ years of exploration, I had never experienced such an event and I did not think that something like this would happen to us again, we did not want to bow to fear.
Starting over now or in a year was not going to change anything.
We had already explored tons of places in the US without problems or charges, over several years.
_______________________________
Now begins part 2 of the road trip... wich we though would be normal as usual.
Against all odds, we got arrested again in another location and it turned out just as badly.
I feel downright bad to talk about it since we just got caught a few days before… normally things like that only happen in stories.
So.. we hit the road again, explored 3-4 spots with no problems.
The next loation we were going to was a former psychiatric state hospital with about 15 buildings.
We had planned to sleep there because some buildings are still in good condition, others totally abandoned, a few still active that we weren't planning to try.
We arrive at night and park the car in what seems to be a small industrial park, there is no "no parking" sign so everything is good.
We take our gear and walk towards the buildings, we had already spotted an open window before going to park.
We go in and go to bed for the night, we see a lot of police patrolling the streets. The next day we start shooting without problems.
All of the buildings are connected by steam tunnels that connect them together, making navigation easy and unobtrusive.
Not all the buildings are accessible.
Towards the middle of the afternoon we are finished and we go out to shoot the outside of the buildings, we see a police car, the guy waives at us and leaves.
Later we see a group of young people parked in front of one of the buildings that we couldn't access through the tunnels and they come and go from their car, clearly trying to get in. A few minutes later, we see the same young dude emerging from a corner of the building, brick in hand.
I walk by and joke "need a crowbar?"
We ignore them and we go around, we find an open window, so we decide to be cool and go open them, as we arrive were they were trying to enter we see them go through a window that they clearly smashed with the brick. I tell him, "come on man" and the guy tries to make us believe it's not them.
We hate people that break buildings especially when they lie to us in our face.
When we have finished shooting we go out and take a photo of the damage and the plate of his car.
We return to my car and we look for a police car to give them the information, finally we do not see any.
Before leaving we will see the morgue building which is a separate small building not connected by tunnels.
We park the car a little further, hidden from the street.
It's wide open, the side door has been completely smashed in since a very long time.
We shoot for 45 minutes and just as I set up my camera to take my last picture we see a policeman yelling at us, gun in hand.
Immediately we raise our hands and I light myslef up with my flashlight so he can see me well.
He orders us to advance quietly towards him, then they escort us to the street, where about 7-8 police cars are waiting for us, my car is surrounded.
They control us as if we were wanted killers.
They tell us that they saw us on the cameras (?!) The day before and that they have been looking for us ever since.
They handcuff us and put us under arrest, search us and they find my picks on me, it seems to put them in all their states.
They put us in 2 separate cars and there is no room for discussion, we go straight to the station, my car is towed.
When we got to the station we briefly explained what we were doing there and the tension went down.
An investigator come to meet us and read us our rights, ask us if we want to answer their questions, the guy is my age and super cool and charismatic and makes me feel like it's just a formality and we will be released, I basically tells him what we are doing and why and that we entered through a window unlocked etc. He asks me if they can search my car, claiming that its going to speed things up.
I accept, telling them that they will find a bag of work tools and a bunch of old paper, he tells me ok no problem.
Later he asks me if we have stolen things, I tell him no of course. I realized once he left that I had taken an old piece of paper with the name of the hospital, lying around, as a souvenir.
He comes back and, of course, he shows me the paper and asks me "you took that?" I'm like yes, but it's worthless and I'm not going there in order to steal a sheet of paper.
He therefore confirms to me at this moment that I am now being prosecuted for burglary, possession of burglary tools, property damage and criminal trespass.
I try to talk to him and make him understand that the papers left in these places are worthless to the owners and almost all already damaged etc.
He doesn't care, he tells me he's defending the state and that I stole from a state-owned building, period.
He also confirms to me that they seized several other documents coming from other places in other States which he believe to be "stolen" and that they seized my computer, our cameras, cellphones and that they will ask for a search warrant to search them and that they will contact all the agencies to link to the "documents" found in my car and any information found in our devices.
He tells me that we are very likely to be charged in several other states.
I try once again to make him understand what we are doing and that it is without bad intention and that we even close down places, contact owners etc ... nothing to do, the guy is on a mega powertrip.
They are now moving us into detention while we are seeing the judge. We spend the night in jail until we meet the judge at around 10am.
The judge has to decide if he lets us go or if we have to wait in jail until the preliminary trial which is in 2 weeks.
I speak to the judge on a webcam and he explains to me what is going to happen.
He told me that normally for this kind of charge he would put a bail for $105,000 but that he was going to give us a 'deal' for $35,000.
I am speechless, once he's finished speaking I ask him if we can speak, human to human and to try to understand that all this has been too far and that we are only documenting history.
He tells me that he cannot trust my words but the facts put in front of him on paper.
However, he seems to have compassion but remains on his decision.
I leave the room completely demolished, it's it, I'm going to jail for 2 weeks.
All these hours we had time to speak with the "staff" of the detention, including the receptionist who seemed to understand the s*** we were in, we could not contact anyone because we had the numbers of no one and anyway the prison did not have an international line, so we could not contact our relatives until the trial in 2 weeks.
The moment you get arrested, you are completely stripped of your life and your freedom.
They put us back in the cell, and we await our transfer to the "real" prison.
An hour later the door opens, a policeman and a guy in civilian clothes with his coffee come in, we don't recognize him, the policeman tells us, "it's the judge".
The judge tells us "hey, brother from the north!" in a friendly tone. (This is the one we spoke to on webcam, who left his home to come see us)
He tells us he understands the situation and is ready to change his decision and let us go without paying 35k if our criminal record is correct.
He said, "I have a contact at the FBI who will contact the RCMP in Canada and get your criminal records out."
The receptionist had contacted the judge, if I understood correctly, to explain to him that we could not even reach our relatives.
An hour later he returns and confirms that he lets us go but that if we don't come back for the court date we will be arrested if we ever set foot in the US.
They let us go, we have no more cells, no more car, no more wallets, no nothing, ludo doesn't even have a coat.
They give us directions to the police station which holds our things which is about 5-6km away.
It is Saturday morning, we walk there and we ask to collect our things but they tell us that we have to come back on Monday because it is closed.
That means we are without cellphones or a car or money for the weekend.
We start looking for a refuge to sleep and beg for money to be able to eat.
It is completely ridiculous.
Finally we talk to a guy and he agrees to lend us his cell to contact our relatives and I manage to convince him that someone is going to send him money by Paypal. It works and he withdraws the money from an ATM.
We can therefore eat and take a hotel for the we.
Come Monday, we go to collect our things and the only thing they give us is our wallet and keys, everything else is being held as evidence for investigation. If we want our cells we have to give them permission to search them on the spot, which we refuse. We cooperated enough already.
We now go pick up the car (the garage broke my bumper by putting it on the towing, too).
We are going to buy new cell phones for the second time.
This is really the end of the road trip, we come back to Canada.
______________________________________
So that's where we are.
2 charges of burglary in 2 states with a big investigation into our computers/phones, past explorations and "documents" found in my car, close to $15,000 of equipment gone including our original cams that we will surely never see again.
$9,200 in hospital bill.
We have to individually take lawyers for each case which could cost up to $10-15k each.
It does not include the cost of trying to prosecute those who fired at me.
We already spent close to $5,000 and it's just for the lawyer to appear at the preliminary hearing, for one of the 2 cases.
I never ask for anything in life but honestly... it's just too much and impossible to raise.
I have no more work and currently I cannot return with my broken ribs.
So I share with you the gofundme that my friends created to help us.
Anything will help even if it's just $5.
https://gofund.me/f9774056
Thank you for taking the time to read all this.
Il y a toujours un moyen.