This doesn't involve an interaction with police or security but it comes very close due to the nature of what happened.
I was exploring a massive abandoned textile mill for the second time that day and everything started out normally.
As I worked my way down towards the rear of the building, I started to hear noises, almost like there was someone else exploring the building at the same time as me. Initially, I thought it was birds on the roof causing sounds to echo throughout the mill, mainly in the two large rooms where the machinery used to be. At this time, I was not concerned about anything.
As I got closer to the smaller rooms out the back, the sounds got louder and the wind also picked up at the same time so I assumed the noise was the wind causing tree branches to brush against the walls and rattle loose items attached to the outside of the building. I even jokingly told myself "I wonder if 2 groups of explorers has ever bumped into each other during an exploration". After cracking the joke, I continued to explore the rooms in the back.
When I finished exploring the back rooms, I stepped outside and started walking to the front of the building.
About halfway up the driveway, I decided to take a detour through the building and exit via the room which I entered from. The wind also died down and the noise began to quieten as I re-entered the mill.
At this point, I was now back inside the mill heading towards the room I entered from and I started to hear more noises but this time, it was not wind or birds. Then I saw something through one of the external doors. It was a white ute parked in an old loading bay, directly opposite the unlocked gate where I entered. The source of the noise became obvious.
With the adrenaline starting to dump, I walked very quietly, turned my phone off and walked out of the main workshop and into the room I entered from. I stayed inside for a few minutes, peeked out one of the doors, saw the parked ute and also the driver. I moved as far as possible from the door closest to the ute and quietly muttered to myself "Crap. I'm done for."
I started to panic but managed to regain control when I remembered the cut section of fence I entered through during my first exploration of the mill and that I had a second way to get out. This however required me to sprint across a section of footpath, climb a nealy 1 meter tall retaining wall and through an overgrown garden to reach the hole in the fence, much of this was within an area with an almost unobstructed view from the front of the ute.
The hardest part was still to come. Getting out of the mill and to the fence without being spotted. I waited for a time when the driver couldn't see me and sprinted out of the mill, up the wall and through the garden before finally squeezing through the hole in the fence. I then breathed multiple sighs of relief and kept on saying to myself "How did I do it?"
Once I was on the train home, I looked out the window as the train passed the mill with the ute still parked out front and chuckled to myself. It felt amazing. I had just successfully completed the greatest escape of my life.
108CAM Urbex Joke of the Month: "Take Only Pictures, Leave Only Footprints.....Dora The Urban Explorer!"
Play Your Part, Preserve Our Past.
Preservation of Antique/Historical items should not be hindered by the Urbex Code.