Urban explorers are being called out for trespassing in Plano.<\/p>\n
That’s a trend where people venture into areas off limits and post videos. Some of the content has prompted a warning from police.<\/p>\n
By day, what used to be Armstrong Middle School is an active demolition. But after hours, the action doesn’t always stop.<\/p>\n
Despite locks, a perimeter fence, and warnings to trespassers, videos on social media show people inside some Plano ISD schools, which closed earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost the time you can\u2019t keep kids in school. Now, they\u2019re wanting to get in,\u201d said Jerry Minton, public information officer for the Plano Police Department.<\/p>\n
Videos shared on platforms like Instagram and TikTok provide eery perspectives of what’s left in hallways, gyms, and locker rooms of Armstrong Middle School as well as nearby Forman Elementary, which is now being torn down, too.<\/p>\n
There are entire social media accounts filled with videos from inside abandoned and vacant buildings. They even have a nickname: Urban explorers.<\/p>\n
But their content could come with consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is criminal trespass,\u201d said Minton.<\/p>\n
Not only is it illegal, Minton says being inside a demolition zone is dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the dangers may not be what you can see. It may be things that are in the air. Some of these buildings are older, so you\u2019ll have things like asbestos, chemical products that could be in the air in the process of being destroyed,\u201d explained Minton.<\/p>\n
Minton says the department received several reports of trespassers at Armstrong Middle School last week. One incident involved ten to twenty juveniles, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to explore, find something that\u2019s not as dangerous,\u201d said Minton.<\/p>\n
More security measures are being added, police say, like barriers, cameras, and increased patrols. They\u2019re also warning that the city\u2019s four closed campuses, Armstrong Middle, Forman Elementary, Davis Elementary, and Carpenter Middle Schools, aren\u2019t places to play.<\/p>\n
Days after their initial public warning, Plano police say they arrested four 17-year-old’s for trespassing at Armstrong Middle School. Police say none of them are from Plano.<\/p>\n
The teens now face criminal trespassing charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Urban explorers are being called out for trespassing in Plano. That’s a trend where people venture into areas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161],"class_list":{"0":"post-2973","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-plano","8":"tag-plano","9":"tag-plano-headlines","10":"tag-plano-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}