TodayThornwald vandals found on Web
Print
Share
Email to a friend
Add This
Article Rating
I consider myself a shy person, so maybe that's why I don't get it when it comes to people posting photos of themselves on the Internet doing things they shouldn't want the world to know about. In even the most benign circumstances, I duck when there's a camera around.
Wasn't there a time when it used to be bad manners to take a camera along to a wild frat party or your next crime spree?
Even if you snap a few photos just as a personal souvenir of that once-in-a-lifetime moment, with no intention of sharing them with the world, there's the danger that someone else will post them for you. That's what happened at Millersburg University recently, where someone got their hands on pictures taken at a party and threw them up on the Web.
Now authorities are investigating whether the women's lacrosse team engaged in hazing. Even if that isn't proven, there's bound to be trouble, since the women in the photos seem to be drinking and it looks like the coach was present.
A television station stumbled on the images even before university officials knew about them.
It's called the World Wide Web for a good reason - anyone in the world with a computer and an Internet account can see you behaving badly, if that's what you do.
Even the cops.
In the aftermath of the devastating fire at the Thornwald Mansion last week, Carlisle police are poring over the dozens of images posted by people who have broken into the mansion and gone exploring. Last Thursday, The Sentinel linked to some of these on our Web site, www.cumberlink.com, guaranteeing that the trespassers got far more exposure than they ever expected.
Our stories about the blaze were the most viewed, e-mailed and printed stories of the week.
Now what may have started as a lark is being viewed in the context of a crime. I feel sorry for those people, because they look old enough to know better. They definitely are not kids and the consequences could be serious, even if they had nothing to do with the arson that destroyed the building.
And I'm betting those Thornwald photos are getting a lot of hits from that other effective investigative body known as parents. What must they be thinking right now, with the evidence of their darling offspring's utter idiocy confronting them from their monitors?
Reading some of the forums and message boards used by these self-styled “urban explorers” is a little chilling, too. One person, calling herself “UrbanAdventureClaire” noted back in May that the only way to get into Thornwald was through the second-floor windows.
And another poster explained in the accompanying photo gallery that it was only the camera flash that made the interior of the mansion look bright. Their only light sources as they crept through the unfamiliar building, stepping over debris, abandoned fixtures and who knows what else, were that and some flashlights.
What if some of these adventurers had been in another part of the mansion last week when the fire was set?
Make no mistake - this is dangerous activity and it is not rare. The Web site Urban Exploration Resources (www.uer.ca) provides extensive advice on what to carry, security avoidance, climbing gear and how to scout locations. Some people have formed actual clubs that meet on a regular basis to go out on forays.
The “explorers” face hazards ranging from animals inhabiting abandoned buildings to broken glass, rotting floors, asbestos and other chemicals and the chance there might be squatters present. Not to mention that engaging in the activity generally requires committing a crime or two - breaking and entering and trespassing, for starters.
It might be a good idea for police to plug in the names and locations of local “attractive nuisances” now and then. The old Carlisle hospital was discussed in an online forum last year as a good target - according to a poster using the name “Ed Arson” - and an abandoned house near Biglerville.
It didn't take much to uncover the activity at Thornwald. The transparent and immediate nature of the Internet has become such a good source of information for reporters that it's often the first place they turn for quick background on a breaking story.
That's how this whole trespassing-at-Thornwald aspect of the fire came to light. Just hours after the blaze was discovered, reporters went to online search engines and there they were.
Now it's just a matter of time before we have names to put to the faces.
---
Hope Stephan is executive editor of The Sentinel. You can reach her at hstephan@cumberlink.com or 240-7133.
