Anyway, found out that the building we went into which we thought was the Packard Plant, was actually the Fisher Body Plant 21.
That was determined during some online research; Chris was there & said that the building (the Fisher) looked interesting so we should go back. It raining and the fact that the building is in a mellow neighborhood with no guarding / trouble going inside; we figured why not.
10/08/05: The Fisher Body Plant 21 & Detroit Police Scare Tactics.
After reading that title you may be wondering why it's named that.
Well...I was chillin on this one part of the roof & Chris/Donnie went to check out the water tower...well while over there, Donnie peered over the side of the building to see cops rolling up the road saying something over the loudspeaker. Well he looked where they were going & there was 3 cop cars waiting by the entrance, great I thought. We needed to get out of there.
So we went downstairs (guided by cell phone light) into a lot of darkness & went and checked if they were still there...they were & we decided to find another exit.
Well we found another exit & they didn't see us, but my van was parked on the road that the Fisher Body Plant courtyard is on. So we walked in a big circle to avoid the cops but as we walked up large spotlights hit us...
Detroit Police: "Put Your Hands Up!"
Detroit Police: "Keep walking towards us"
(I squint trying to see them)
Detroit Police: "Don't look at us"
Detroit Police: "Single File"
(We get about 15 feet away from the cars)
Detroit Police: "Alright spread out; hands up higher, higher; spread your legs apart, more, more"
Detroit Police: "What are you doing"
Us: Walking around over there (we point over by I-75)
Detroit Police: "We know what you were doing, we saw your van"
Detroit Police: "Where are you all from"
My friend: Windsor, Ontario
Detroit Police: "Are any of you citizens of the United States"
Us: "No."
(The following is a direct quote, I'm not exaggerating)
Detroit Police: "Well let me tell you something that being white, many of us (he said us) fall victim to violent crimes in these neighborhoods. So on behalf of Detroit tourism, run the fuck outta here."
(We all run back to the van, Chris fully laughing.)
It was quite the experience; the only thing that sucked was that my friend threw
my camera into some weeds once the spotlight hit us because he thought the cops
would look at it & determine we were in the building. (This would be common
place in Canada.) So we drove around for about an hour giving the cops time to
leave; we drove up a cross-street & as we passed we all looked and saw that a
cop was still there. We couldn't believe it. So we went to a parking lot on
Chene & slept for about an hour & went back again; this time there was now 4 cop
cars parked there. We drove around until 11 hoping that shift change would occur
& tried once again. Our hypothesis about shift change was true & we searched the
weeds with flashlights, found my camera & got the hell outta there.
That was quite the Detroit experience for sure. And don't get me wrong, the use of the term "scare tactics" is only in lack of a better term. The police were tremendously nice for simply having fun with us; after all we were somewhere we shouldn't have been.
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2005 BRN
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