St.Lawrences Hospital Bodmin Fatality

[Cuban B.]

"steal copper cabling from the hospital after Mr Greaves, 40, read about the metals in the disused building on the internet." I wonder if they read about the building on an urbex site.

 

[The Archivist]

I wonder if they read about the building on an urbex site.

Well, it's a distinct possibility, I don't imagine there can be many 'metal theives' information boards' out there...

Just goes to show, be careful what you post and where you post it.

 

[the|td4]

It's more than likely that the information came from an urbex forum, thinking that it "might have" is just kidding yourself.

Simply type "derelict" into google and see what's first to pop up.

I know rules and regs have been tightened on the forum about posting location info but sadly the "urbex forum" (and I'm not pinning it on this one) is it's own worst enemy.

I've been an "urbexer" for many years but it's only been the last two or three that I've called myself that, before then I just called myself nosy.

I've stopped posting mostly because of the metal thieves using forums to locate sites and then plunder them, now I rarely post anything and the photos I take I keep to myself and my urbex buddy unless they're entirely "generic" in nature or have no potential for any theft.

I had a real wake up call when I got nabbed by security once at one of our local asylums and they immediately asked "are you from that 28 days website?"

Krela has one hell of a job on to keep a functional forum that shows sites but doesn't give directions.

As regards to someone getting killed on a derelict site, it's not the first time and certainly not the last. I've always expected to find a body one of these days and I'm surprised more haven't died in these sites or at the very least been seriously injured.

Nothing much can be done about it now, it's naive to think that metal thieves aren't clued up when it comes to searching online for places to go and rob, cat's out of the bag and it appears to have turned into a bengal tiger.

 

[Faing]

some people go on safari armed with a camera whilst ithers go armed wiyh a gun. is it fair to keep all thee best safari destinations secret? you cant surely blame the likes of websites sucha sthis because scrap metal theft predates the internet by a few hundred years.As fo holding the likes of krela responsible in part..thats bollocks.

 

[highcannons]

some people go on safari armed with a camera whilst ithers go armed wiyh a gun. is it fair to keep all thee best safari destinations secret? you cant surely blame the likes of websites sucha sthis because scrap metal theft predates the internet by a few hundred years.As fo holding the likes of krela responsible in part..thats bollocks.

Blimey! However you paint it it aint the fault of Krela! But it is right to say that thieving pre-dates the web. The web is simply a tool - to be used for good or bad. We have to lock our tools up as best as possible but the robbers can always buy their own. All that can be done is to take reasonable precautions but the wisest amongst us will make the odd slip.

What we shouldn't consider is a scheme of 'sleeping policeman' for forums where all are punished for the ills of some?

 

[UrbanX]

Cheers for sharing the info guys. I think Anpanman has nailed it when he said we should be really careful.
Yeah this guy was stealing, but it could be any one of us brushing past a live cable.

 

[the|td4]

some people go on safari armed with a camera whilst ithers go armed wiyh a gun. is it fair to keep all thee best safari destinations secret? you cant surely blame the likes of websites sucha sthis because scrap metal theft predates the internet by a few hundred years.As fo holding the likes of krela responsible in part..thats bollocks.

You misunderstand, I didn't blame him at all I said he had a hard job to do moderating all the people who do post far too much information.

Metal theft has indeed gone on long before the Internet was around, nobody's disputing that, the problem is that the Internet has made it very easy for those who might never have stumbled across a site to have a look around inside them and judge whether it's worth their while to go and rob it blind.

This is one of these "pickles" to muse over but there is no real solution. We can do our best by self moderation when it comes to posting pics online - I think you'll find that many of the vets will have the same opinion as I do (it's catch 22).

As an example on a related sort of matter - I'm an offroader, I go all over the place with the 4x4 and go greenlaning. Recently there's been a lot (and I mean a lot) of damage done to greenlanes (that don't repair themselves) and it's getting worse. There's a magazine that a lot of the 4x4 community buy which in every issue shows navigation details on how to find interesting greenlanes to go and explore. Now, there's nothing illegal with that but it's quite a few of the community are up in arms because it's now so easy for the idiots to find greenlanes to go and wreck. They don't care about the tread lightly approach or bothering to check that the lane is legally driveable or plan anything on a map, they just go to the nearest newsagent pickup a magazine and follow detailed instructions. The guides are used by both the pros and the yahoos and there's nothing you can do about that.

There is no easy solution to all of this. One forum/website closes another pops up to take its place and the cycle goes on and security is tightened and buildings are locked down tighter and tighter to the point where they're no longer accessible at all. What are you going to do? We could all stop posting and showing off our pictures and that might help things a little but it won't eradicate the problem, same as that 4x4 mag could stop printing directions to greenlanes and the yahoos wouldn't bother themselves to research and find them because most of them will consider it to be too much trouble. Seeing the parallels?

I'm not here to shout and say everyone should stop posting online because it won't solve the issue at all, but at least with urbex we the community can self moderate and think long and hard about posting the pics we do because after all we're not really meant to be at a lot of the places we go (whether we agree with that or not).

 

[krela]

some people go on safari armed with a camera whilst ithers go armed wiyh a gun. is it fair to keep all thee best safari destinations secret? you cant surely blame the likes of websites sucha sthis because scrap metal theft predates the internet by a few hundred years.As fo holding the likes of krela responsible in part..thats bollocks.

^^^^^ This.

Metal miners have been doing a very effective job since the 1960s, and before that it was looters of bombed out buildings after WW2.

There is no doubt that artefacts go missing because of urbex forums, but empty buildings have been stripped of valuable metals for as long as empty buildings have contained valuable metals.

I have always encouraged people to be very careful about what they post and how much detail they give, but ultimately it's up to the individual. Even if forums didn't exist people would still create their own websites with the same information on, so ultimately it makes no difference.

Really it is a social problem, not a technical one.