FORT KNOX, Ky. \u2014 Fort Knox officials have recently discovered unlawful entry and vandalism of some abandoned buildings since schools were dismissed for summer break in May.<\/p>\n
The vandalism consists of rocks and chunks of concrete being thrown through windows and graffiti on walls. However, military police investigations have uncovered that some have been broken into and the insides ransacked.<\/p>\n
Fort Knox officials said these actions pose a twofold problem for the violators. The first and most obvious is that it\u2019s a crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe abandoned buildings are still property that belongs to the United States government and because of this, if you enter the building, you can be charged in some cases with breaking and entering or trespassing, or both,\u201d said Fort Knox Police chief Michael Doggett.<\/p>\n
Doggett broke down the possible charges that could be levied against anyone who unlawfully enters a federal building, depending on how they got into the building, what they do to the building, and how old they are.<\/p>\n
Anyone who breaks into a secure building would be charged with breaking and entering.<\/p>\n
For juveniles, the case would go before the Juvenile Action Committee, made up of key law enforcement, legal and Garrison command members, which would assess the situation and rule on what punishments would be handed down.<\/p>\n
\u201cMind you, they’re still being charged with that crime,\u201d said Doggett, \u201cbut only as a juvenile.\u201d<\/p>\n
Punishment could include community service on or off post for both the juveniles and their parents, said Doggett, or more severe charges, such as them and their parents being barred from living on post.<\/p>\n
Even buildings that for whatever reason are not secured, there is a punishment for entering.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you entered the building because the door or a window was open, we might not charge you for breaking and entering, but we will charge you for trespassing,\u201d said Doggett. \u201cThat then gets even more severe if we find damage or vandalism to the building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vandalism includes tagging buildings with graffiti and damaging the building on either the outside or inside or even left-behind items in the building \u2013 such as drop ceiling tiles, mirrors, lighting, door windows, air conditioning systems and sheetrock walls.<\/p>\n
The reason, according to Doggett, is because not all abandoned buildings are scheduled for demolition. Some are planned for future renovations, based on Directorate of Public Works assessments.<\/p>\n
For adults, the case would be referred to the courts on or off post for federal criminal charges.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’re going to get issued citations, and you’re going to have to appear in court,\u201d said Doggett. \u201cWe hold a monthly Magistrate Court where a judge comes from Louisville down to preside over cases. That judge has all the authority from incarceration to fines. You risk the potential of going to jail for several days.\u201d<\/p>\n
The details of each situation are considered, but breaking the law is still breaking the law, according to Doggett.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of levels where action can be taken against a person who breaks into a building or enters a building unlawfully, trespasses or causes damage to one of these structures,\u201d said Doggett.<\/p>\n
The law is not the only threat to those who are unauthorized to enter abandoned buildings. There are also hidden health threats that pose potentially much greater threats: from mold spores, asbestos fibers and lead to wild animal feces carrying rabies and other diseases.<\/p>\n
Fort Knox Public Health Chief Dr. James Stephens said the empty buildings are boarded up and locked for good measure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a reason we\u2019re not using them anymore,\u201d said Stephens. \u201cIt\u2019s very rare that we leave a building fallow just because we want to leave it empty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dilapidated buildings pose their own unique challenges, said Stephens, which amount to physical threats.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing we worry about is structural damage. So, breaking into a building is dangerous; we hope they don\u2019t fall through a floor, we hope the stairs don\u2019t collapse. We hope the ceiling doesn\u2019t fall in.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Stephens, over 10% of the buildings at Fort Knox date back to before the 1950s. What by today\u2019s standards is of grave concern today was of no concern back then.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of our buildings were built between 1950 and 1990,\u201d said Stephens. \u201cWe didn\u2019t stop using lead paint until the mid \u201870s,\u201d said Stephens. \u201cAll our legacy buildings had asbestos tiles. The concrete had asbestos in it. So, when we go into these buildings, we have to leave them because they are unsafe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asbestos becomes dangerous when it is disturbed in some way \u2013 cracked tiles, peeling paint, rotting pipe wrapping. Danger can lurk everywhere, said Stephens: \u201cThe older it gets, the more friable it gets, and it powders wherever you go; so, you touch it and it just crumbles, and then you breathe it in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Motorpool buildings pose their own dangers, said Stephens.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey used solvents for paint stripping, solvents for cleaning the motorpools \u2013 leaded fuels. We have no idea what was dumped in them over the last 75 years,\u201d said Stephens. \u201cWe also can\u2019t say that people were 100% safe all the time back then.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a result, Stephens suggests that anybody who comes down with unusual symptoms, symptoms that don\u2019t fit into typical seasonal illnesses should get checked out by a doctor. And speak honestly about entering an abandoned building.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should at least mention, \u2018Hey, I was in an abandoned building that had a lot of dirt, dust and animal feces in there,\u2019\u201d said Stephens. \u201cWhen people come in and say, \u201cI have the flu,\u2019 the medical community tends to focus on just the flu. If you come in with an illness and say, \u2018Hey, I was in this type of dangerous area,\u2019 then we\u2019ll start expanding our testing and our thought processes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tony Ritenour, Toxic Substances Control Act manager at Fort Knox, said the abandoned buildings can contain several deadly toxins that can get more toxic with time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey’re full of invisible health hazards,\u201d said Ritenour. \u201cThey’ve got mold, they’ve got asbestos and dust and there’s lots of hazards within that dust, which include lead. Just walking through a building can stir them up.\u201d<\/p>\n
While nobody knows who is entering some of the abandoned buildings, Ritenour said he has a suspicion it could be youths who are out of school and looking for things to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe they go in there to have fun, or maybe they want to do some bad things in there,\u201d said Ritenour. \u201cBut this could cause health hazards that they\u2019re not aware of.\u201d<\/p>\n
The father of two teen boys offered some advice for anybody who might be tempted to sneak inside:<\/p>\n
\u201cI get it \u2014 an empty building looks like the perfect place to hang out, explore, or just do something different. But here’s what you can’t see; the air inside is full of asbestos fibers, lead dust and mold spores. You won’t smell them. You won’t feel them. You’ll walk out thinking nothing happened,\u201d said Ritenour. \u201cThe problem is what those fibers may do later; they lodge in your lungs and can cause cancer that shows up when you’re in your 30s or 40s, when you’ve got a whole life going on. Lead can mess with your brain and memory right now, while it’s still developing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn’t me trying to get you in trouble; it’s me trying to keep you from trading one afternoon of adventure for a diagnosis down the road that you can’t take back. There’s no do-over on this one. Stay out! And if your friends are talking about going in, be the one who says it’s not worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT KNOX, Ky. \u2014 Fort Knox officials have recently discovered unlawful entry and vandalism of some abandoned buildings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-739509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}