Explorer death at Grand Trunk Warehouse & Cold Storage

There was an explorer death at the Grand Trunk Warehouse on East Ferry and St. Aubin next to the Incinerator on Friday night. A group was in the building and lost one of their friends according to local papers. They had to come back the next morning to continue searching and found him in a elevator shaft. I was out taking photos of St. Albertus on Saturday and I drove by the warehouse while authorities were recovering the body. I thought it was a fire at first and almost took pictures, but then it didnt look like there was any fire I realized it was probably a recovery of some kind.

Local media are repeating the police in describing this building as "The Packard Plant". The Arte Express company guy from Peru owns both properties, which is probably why the police keep saying that. I dont think the GT Warehouse was ever part of the Packard Plant which is almost two miles away.

If that building does not ring a bell right away, here are some photos, I am sure many people will recognize it.
http://detroitfunk.com/death-at-gran...-cold-storage/

"Explorer Death" If the reports are correct, it was a group of idiots playing hide and seek at midnight. Either way no reason to be in there, especially at night.

Even as someone who has always loved this "urban spelunking" I was never one to do it at night. Yes, it is potentially dangerous, just as is mountain climbing or cave exploration, but taking risks for fun is part of our nature.

Very sad. Peace and blessings to the family.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mauser

A group was in the building and lost one of their friends according to local papers. They had to come back the next morning to continue searching and found him in a elevator shaft.

---

Hopefully the rest of them were arrested and charged accordingly. Being there at all, let alone leaving with one missing likely contributed to the death.

Ignorance is the most expensive commodity you can have.

This story begs the question of why would they leave him there? If they came up a man short, and couldn't find him with the equipment they had, why didn't they call the police right then?

Yep, I cant believe not one of them would call cops. I know I would. At least this story makes more sense that "a man died playing hide and seek" I just could not make any sense of this at all. Im quite certain that way before you become a man you have stopped playing hide and seek[[with your friends. I realize you may still play with kids). Its either a man exploring or a child playing hide and seek. Yet the news keeps airing this ridiculous headline that a man died playing hide and seek at the packard plant. This is how people fall into the fake news garbage. Report better please news people.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EastsideAl

This story begs the question of why would they leave him there? If they came up a man short, and couldn't find him with the equipment they had, why didn't they call the police right then?

---

IMO leaving him makes one or all of them potential murder suspects in his death. Not to be too conspiratorial but for someone familiar the building a quick shove by an open elevator shaft could look awfully like an accident.

I'm also sharing some annoyance of news articles referring to this site as the Packard Plant. It is nowhere near it.

Just being in the place is illegal which makes them all culpable for whatever happens. Leaving compounds it.

They were trespassing at 1 in the morning, and given the time of night could have been drinking a bit as well. So it's really no surprise that no one would call the police when one person could not be located. The idea that he had been seriously injured probably wasn't even a consideration at that point. They probably just assumed he had left, or was still hiding.

Even if they had called the police, I can imagine how that call might go. "We're in our early 20's and playing hide and seek in an old warehouse, but can't find "Joe". The likelihood of an officer ever showing for a call like that on a Friday night in Detroit is near zero.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Meddle

Just being in the place is illegal which makes them all culpable for whatever happens. Leaving compounds it.

---

In a lot of places the opposite is true. There’s reasonable duty of care by the property owner to secure dangerous and hazardous property, it doesn’t diminish their responsibility even with trespassers.

In Detroit, lack of resources for code enforcement allow these buildings to stand wide open as an attractive nuisance.

If they were properly secured in the first place, there’d be less of a reason for people to go inside and do stupid stuff like this and probably a lot less danger if the place wasn’t falling apart.

^ is that kinda like if somebody in front of you drops a wallet,it is yours because the owner had a responsibility to properly secure it?

Or it is not your property and you are not entitled to enter it without permission,or if you choose to do so,you are well aware of the liabilities and that things can and do happen.

You are making that decision.

Secured or not,people always find a way to get in.

In this case I am sure the autopsy will determine the timeframe,personaly I would hate to think the person laid there for hours and maybe a life could have been saved.

I also think it is strange to enter as a group then get separated,the whole idea as a group is so these things do not happen.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Johnnny5

Even if they had called the police, I can imagine how that call might go. "We're in our early 20's and playing hide and seek in an old warehouse, but can't find "Joe". The likelihood of an officer ever showing for a call like that on a Friday night in Detroit is near zero.

---

Calling 911 and stating a person is missing and possibly injured would get fire and EMS at least.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Meddle

Calling 911 and stating a person is missing and possibly injured would get fire and EMS at least.

---

Maybe a stray EMS team from Windsor, who knows?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Richard

Secured or not,people always find a way to get in.

---

Exactly!

Finally, the light bulb flickered.

If people are determined you can’t even keep them out if a old building.

Same rule applies to a 1954 mile long border but of course much harder times hundreds of thousands.

Now you finally understand that the whole thing is a charade for simpleminded people so that Billions of our taxpayer dollars will be channeled into the pockets of political friends when there are far more successful cost effective ways of dealing with the problem.

Miracles do happen!

^^ I don't think the building in question is that big.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Richard

^ is that kinda like if somebody in front of you drops a wallet,it is yours because the owner had a responsibility to properly secure it?

Or it is not your property and you are not entitled to enter it without permission,or if you choose to do so,you are well aware of the liabilities and that things can and do happen.

You are making that decision.
.

---

That’s not a correlative scenario. But entering a property without permission and failure to secure are both violations of varying severity depending on the jurisdiction. People are going to take sides here, but a broad and more reasonable perspective are both sides are at fault. Wouldn’t be surprised if the explorers got let off the hook and the property owner probably won’t get citied because of Detroit’s enforcement malaise

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wolverine

Wouldn’t be surprised if the explorers got let off the hook and the property owner probably won’t get citied because of Detroit’s enforcement malaise

---

Which is the third culpable party and may be the one the relatives sue.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wolverine

That’s not a correlative scenario. But entering a property without permission and failure to secure are both violations of varying severity depending on the jurisdiction. People are going to take sides here, but a broad and more reasonable perspective are both sides are at fault. Wouldn’t be surprised if the explorers got let off the hook and the property owner probably won’t get citied because of Detroit’s enforcement malaise

---

Not in Detroit,but the ones that got trapped in the mine and had to be rescued were arrested for trespassing and grand theft,they entered in order to steal copper.

They did not charge the mine owner for failure to secure.

Most view it as if you did not enter in the first case you would have never had a problem or taking personal responsibility for ones actions.

If you leave your front door open does that make it okay for anybody to enter?

Prayers goes out for the family of the decease. I had found on Facebook over the past ten years that there are groups that trespass on these abandoned sites and take photos of the ruins and take selfies as well. They enter these premises, mostly are abandoned, illegally and at their own risks. These groups find a way to enter into these boarded up abandoned schools, factories, and other buildings putting their lives at risk for what; bragging rights? It wasn't too long that a traveler from France was killed in or near the closed Packard Plant site. Detroit was an underground tourist attraction 10 years or so for it's ruins. Some had labeled it on their sites "Ruined Porn"

Ruin porn was pretty big from 2008-2015, when DSLR cameras became cheap enough for the average person to afford them, and there were plenty of abandoned factories and skyscrapers in Detroit. Interesting photography, but it got pretty old seeing the same exact shots from the top of the Farwell Building and Book Tower. And now a lot of those spots have been renovated, which made a big dent on those kinds of photos.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ABetterDetroit

Exactly!

Finally, the light bulb flickered.

If people are determined you can’t even keep them out if a old building.

Same rule applies to a 1954 mile long border but of course much harder times hundreds of thousands.

Now you finally understand that the whole thing is a charade for simpleminded people so that Billions of our taxpayer dollars will be channeled into the pockets of political friends when there are far more successful cost effective ways of dealing with the problem.

Miracles do happen!

---

Wow, someone with a brain and common sense. I dont know how to respond. Give me 5 billion and I'll build you a wall and and none of my friends or family will ever have to work again. I'd be fighting pretty hard for that too if I thought it was a possibility. Probably be pretty mad if it didnt pan out after all this time also.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EGrant

Ruin porn was pretty big from 2008-2015, when DSLR cameras became cheap enough for the average person to afford them, and there were plenty of abandoned factories and skyscrapers in Detroit. Interesting photography, but it got pretty old seeing the same exact shots from the top of the Farwell Building and Book Tower. And now a lot of those spots have been renovated, which made a big dent on those kinds of photos.

---

It kinda got ruined when the taggers,scrappers,and people not following the code destroyed everything.

I Kinda like the before and after aspects of the pictures,when they come advailable.

But when you watch urbex on a world wide scale,it is the same destruction everywhere and not just one city.

A quote from a prior post :
"If you leave your front door open does that make it okay for anybody to enter?"

Well yeah - it's an opening to explore.........................
Personal responsibility, inherent to self preservation on the planet.
Don't expect rescue, help, assistance, etc. because it's all on you.
If you go ice fishing and float away...bye bye you idiot dolt.

"Ignorance is the most expensive commodity you can have."


https://redrundrain.files.wordpress....tion-basin.jpg

We can only hope for ourselves and think about safety in advance, doing dangerous hobbies or work. Here is a story from real life about underwater fishing. My friend bought a fishing rod a month ago and went ice fishing alone for the first time. He fell asleep and fell to the side of the hole, and eventually the ice cracked and he went under the ice in all the equipment. He survived only because he tied himself to the shore in advance and managed to get out, though with difficulty, got pneumonia, but survived. He doesn't go fishing like that anymore.

A couple of points...

The owner of the Grand Trunk Building may not want to spend the necessary funds to secure a place that brings him no profit. That place has been empty for years. Why would you even want to own it? What for?

[[BTW, if the owner is the same person who owns the Packard Plant, that's Fernando Palazuela, of Peru.)

Anyway, to get to my main point: Grand Trunk was a cold storage facility. It had no windows, presumably to keep things colder due to a total lack of outside sunlight. I've been in that building. You need a torch - and you had better hope the torch/battery doesn't die if you're alone. It is literally pitch black inside and very easy to become lost. It was the darkest Detroit abandoned plant I have ever experienced. It has a strange appeal, but the place creeps me out.

The Grand Trunk Western Historical Society "The Semaphore" issue #75 Fall 2019 is devoted to this building. The article features around 18 pages, including many pages from the original brochure publicizing the opening of the facility. Also, maps, aerial photos, and pics of later rail ops in the area.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Meddle

^^ I don't think the building in question is that big.

---

It's a fairly big building. It's a warehouse And I don't know how many people here have been by there but I see it regularly and I'm sure those who also do know that is a den for homeless and drug addicts and such, per a former forum member who unfortunately passed. But I drive by there from time to time as a shortcut to my house and there is always people traffic there. I'm not judging the deceased, it's horrible. But it's not far from Chene and 94. There is a lot more to this story, per usual.

Yes, bartocktoo, I don't believe that grown adults play 'hide and seek'. Especially in the dead-of-night in a building that is pitch black even when the outside world is in full-sunlight.

There should be better things to do in life than hang-out in the Grand Trunk bldg. I suppose.