What’s in America’s Abandoned Malls (Full Episode)

foreign [Music] [Music] it just looks like someone's scalp look oh what is that I don't want to come across a dead body [Music] [Laughter] [Music] foreign Ohio this area has had a lot of hard times it went from a Boom Town to a bus town and it seems to still be trying to recover from that I've seen a lot of dad malls here from my experience this is pretty extraordinary we really wanted to explore them and figure out why this phenomena is happening here phenomenon phenomena it's something like a phenomenon let's see just how a shopping can be fun real fun at this modern and convenient shopping center the modern mall was born in America in the 1950s the love child of car culture and suburbia one of the gayest attractions at Hillsdale is the fabulous Farmers Market which draws throngs of people day and night for dining and food shopping by the 80s malls were everywhere and shopping wasn't just a Pastime it was a way of life by the late 90s there were 1200 shopping malls spread across the U.S we built so many so close together there weren't enough shoppers when online shopping and the recession hit hundreds of malls turned into dead zones now there's a trail of abandoned malls across America and Northeast Ohio is the Mecca we're about to hook up with a photographer and activist Seth Lawless he shot these images inside abandoned malls All Over America but specifically here in the Cleveland area that went viral hey Rick nice to meet you nice to meet you [Music] you made these books one is specifically about Abandoned malls yeah this is the book Black Friday the collapse of the American shopping mall a lot of people don't know what Black Friday is yeah yeah outside of oh yeah yeah it's a real ugly day in America actually it's a day that we just Stampede each other for sales actually yes and it could also be called black mold yeah black mold in there yeah but basically um started shooting abandoned malls stemming from a project that I did called autopsy of America came across malls decided to focus purely on malls after the kind of the response I got my thought was that a lot of people are really connected to malls because it's sort of like their third place you know you have home school or work and then that's your third place it's like part of your triangle of Life yeah absolutely I mean it was a pivotal time in most people's lives you went to the mall you didn't go there to shop per se yeah you went there to hang out you went there to meet people to communicate yeah you might kiss your first girlfriend there you know people shared those moments with me so for them to see that mall close yeah it was hard to see I mean they were really connected with them all and to see an abandoned shopping mall that apocalyptic landscape an ugly side of capitalism in a way to see that it's very symbolic for America to go wow a shopping mall been in America no way malls were designed to be Community hubs full of life and energy but their downfall might have been welcomed by their inventor Victor Gruen Victor Gruen came up with the architectural design of them all in fact he came to hate shopping malls my creation wasn't intended to create a gigantic shopping machine I am devastated he declared shortly before his death that he wishes every mall in America would crumble and die really and that's why I dedicate this book because now it's crumbling and dying and so it's almost like his wish he would probably love to see the malls in this state believe it or not the prophecy has been exactly Victor Gruen has come full circle [Music] so this is it this is Randall Park Mall this is Randall Park Mall or what's left of it what's left of it yeah no one would build a sign like just for a mall nowadays it's not big enough it's not bright enough it's not fancy enough there's no Jumbotron wow dude watch out for the rest of it you'll get your head cut off yeah it looks like you could fall any point man I'm not really like a scaredy cat okay but like there's a bunch of basically uh loose Guillotines these things are going to cut our heads off if we stand here too long so please can we go somewhere else [Music] Seth told me that Randall Park was the mall to go to in Cleveland from its opening in 1976 to the late 90s when the whole area began to struggle the mall closed for Good in 2009 and now it's being demolished this is such a massive amount of space like I know how models are big but this feels so big this would be full with cars on any given day wow so as you can imagine how many people were in the mall yeah this was the entry and you could see the cement columns you're witnessing probably some of the last images and clips of this mall yeah I mean this will be gone probably in the next several months man this is the first time I've seen this and it's kind of emotional this is crazy to see this the way it is not many people will see it after this it's pretty interesting he got like an emotional moment actually seeing it in this state it's really affecting me that looks like an abandoned Hotel yeah that's an abandoned Hotel there in the back shop of what's left of this mall and it's a sober reality of the economic State you know it's like a cancer it just grows and grows and so when something this big collapses literally it has an effect it has an effect in the community it affects Commerce all around it stores houses homes it should be a sobering wake-up call for most Americans to see there's a big building over there he said that's abandoned there's a racetrack abandoned there's toy store here this other gas station like as far as you can see here is dead [Music] for decades this Wasteland was a Shopper's Paradise the mall was so busy people would fight over parking spots now Randall Park is mainly known for its abandonment and it's not the only Shoppers graveyard around here 30 miles South lies one of Ohio's most infamous dead malls Rolling Acres yeah [Music] this is it this is Rolling Acres wow parking lots all overgrown yeah this place is pretty shuttered so kind of creepy that we're going in Rolling Acres was the biggest mall in Akron when it opened in 1975. it was the place to be for a few decades but it started losing stores in the late 90s and shut down for good in 2008. welcome to America dead malls and football is that then oops I'll take this helmet off you're Greg I'm Rick you're Rick yeah good to meet you good to meet you thanks for meeting us here no problem that's a nice car thank you um oh I shouldn't lean on your car yeah just got it back from the body shop how's it going Rick David nice to meet you your security yes all right Greg and Damon went to this mall all the time growing up and after it shut down they kept coming back [Music] and Damon both starred in this zombie tribute to their childhood mom [Music] liked your video that was cool appreciate that yeah Damon was my favorite zombie something like that yeah [Music] what was like when it was open early 90s up to 2000s this whole parking lot was packed this was the place to be really like 2003 up to 2008 it's closing it was really desolate your car tires would get slashed or they would steal stuff so after that it became known as you go there you're gonna get shot robbed or whatever so it got a bad reputation yeah kind of getting geared up to go in it's really strange to be in this place where there's crickets there should be you know crowds of humans pretty surreal [Music] oh wow [Music] Rolling Acres Mall resting in peace since 2008. most dead malls get demolished or repurposed but Greg and Damon's childhood mom just sits here rotting oh wow [Music] it's so quiet in here hello this used to be a pretzel shop one of the first smells you'd get that in popcorn as well yeah take you guys down here that's some mushy slippery stuff oh yeah so there's no live power in here we're not going to get zorched not anymore no more zorching wow Excalibur right here this is where you can go in and buy uh swords and knives I remember they used to have a cane and you open it up and it's actually a sword everything was a concealed knife or a sword the concealed knife store do you remember what this store was or I'm gonna say this was KB Toys toy store yeah now it's like an art gallery basically welcome to Rolling afros wheat is good is another one You Can't Hide I will find you I will hurt you I will kill you couldn't spell it out any uh clearer you'll want to put your mask on now okay get into the molier spot tell me about um the types of people that come in here now I would say some of them are Seekers they just want to see what's going on but then you got your ones that just want to come through with their girlfriends scare them and get laid others just want to smoke pot drink and then what that would lead to is destruction they'll start busting stuff up get video of themselves smashing stuff things like that yeah what about the skateboarders that might come through here that I can get but still yeah you got to be careful you're going to come through you're going to get hurt there's nobody in here to find you you've Fallen here you get cut you're getting infected right you get sliced open you can't walk your legs are broken or whatever there's nowhere to crawl to there's nobody to find you nothing yeah so you're really concerned about people's personal safety oh yeah yeah very yeah this feels like it's going to tilt yeah is that your blood no the red paint no we'd never leave any trace of us being here when we were here last filming dawn of the outbreak this is 10 times worse than what it was then it's disgusting it's disgrace why do you think it's so disgraceful because disrespect to what the place used to be it's disrespected the people who used to come here and care about it yeah you know it's this is It's a disgrace to people who came here and spent their childhood here and you're just coming in busting it up doing it as you please yeah to people who live here grow up around here this was a social place this is a place where you go to leave the world outside right it's like an escape yes that's exactly what it was it seems like this place is sort of sacred to you yeah it is yeah not just me but to a lot of people who spent their childhood here yeah yeah come up here on Sundays after church with my grandparents all the time just run around and go to the food court eat some food and watch a movie and he said this is a closest my grandfather ever got to Florida just looking right down on those two palm trees when you sit there and watch me go up and down in the elevator but I do miss this place a lot we really wish people would get a little bit more control over themselves Greg and Damon had no shortage of fond memories at Rolling Acres but not everyone's experience at the mall was so good this used to be all open see at the base yeah so a kid was playing underneath it and the elevator came down on them and crushed them wow I was over there in the food court you were here yeah oh yeah he went up in here and his mom wasn't watching yeah and he crawled in here playing around the elevator came down and crushed him he was screaming and his mom was just right over here she wasn't paying attention which is why he yeah he wandered in there that's so sad like it's sort of like a really avoidable death it was it was very avoidable he just wandered off without her knowing yeah what is that it just looks like someone's scalp I don't want to come across a dead body in early Acres Mall right now because it makes two of us yeah I looked in here and I saw what looks like a human scalp and I know it's not a human scalp but I'm gonna poke it with this stick just so I know this is not making me feel better is it a wig I don't know this feels really creepy like it looks like hair doesn't it but it's loaded I think it's an animal it could be yeah I don't want to poke it because it might pop when I first touched it I gotta tell you I thought it might have been something really really really horrible and nasty okay I'm actually a little scared right now there are cats that roam around yeah I think that's a dead animal oh that was creepy after the mysterious hairy blob incident Greg and I parted ways for the day thank you so much no problem thank you appreciate it we just came out of Rolling Acres and to Greg this mall is like sacred he doesn't want anybody's like damaging the inside even though it's it's gone it's kind of funny like he spent his whole life here for his entertainment and his Escape but now that the mall's dead he's still coming here for his entertainment and his Escape he's really into like the past good experience it seems like and maybe some of the happiest times of his life were here or something I'm kind of curious what he's going to do when it's gone if they ever cleared out when I said I wanted to skate in the mall this is not what I was thinking I thought it'd be a little smoother and a little less broken glass everywhere [Music] when I was a kid we escaped mall parking lots and just this pull would be a spot that was pretty fun [Music] for a lot of people the mall is a home away from home happy place but I was never one of those people I was raised on welfare four kids single mom no money like going to a mall it was just this Factory of shame it made me feel terrible like I feel emotional right now just thinking about it actually was like an emotional scar I hated them all I still hate them all but I feel so much compassion for the people that that's their lives to go there and live there and work there and for them to lose that it makes me really sad it's a big loss I think for a community Cleveland isn't just full of abandoned malls you can find all kinds of abandoned places here rolling through an area right now that seems to have a lot of abandoned homes and apartments all shut down it's hard to believe that this was once such a thriving populace like it was a huge industrial and Manufacturing Hub in the world since the mid 40s it's lost 40 or 50 percent of its population this place was like the Silicon Valley of yesterday instead of making software and all that stuff there are these big factories that were making actual tactile products that people were using and then it went bust I wonder if the new Silicon Valley the Silicon Valley will uh survive down the road when things change for them all of these abandoned buildings made me think about growing up roaming around looking for skate spots skating places most people thought were forgotten [Music] we're at the Fun wall in West Cleveland right now this place is a DIY spot do it yourself they just took over this abandoned space and I'm trying to get tricks fall down get back on the horse but I uh it's actually a skateboard all right fun wall please stay fun this place used to be a diaper Factory this is the foundation to it you can actually like get underneath the basement it's kind of cool I mean it's disgusting but this is not going to be safe unless Cleveland Nile 2009 when I first started coming this was a shitty neighborhood there's gangs and homeless people like 200 000 square feet of abandoned city property that they turn their back on you know we cleaned this place up it still looks like a but doesn't get gentrified to the point where there are no more abandoned buildings it's like a playground you know it's a place where cops don't go it's a place where nobody goes and you can just like do whatever you want it's not like San Francisco or Portland where you have a bunch of moving like oh yeah I'm gonna be this person now you can't do that here it's only us and we all grew up together and if you do move here you're hardcore like that's what I like about it is that there's no Outsiders sorry guys [Music] fun well thank you the majority of skateboarders are feral teenagers I was a feral teenager like true sense of the word I was feral out there doing whatever I want whenever I wanted and skated from when I woke up to him until I went to bed and then maybe again after I went to bed I would get up and go skating like it's like ingrained in My DNA and I think that's how it is for most skaters thank you it's a tight-knit community that is run by teenagers it's like Lord of the Flies times a million all right oh whoops I was just trying my ear but I want to give you a pound too so we're doing the show about Abandoned malls oh yeah I remember those days yeah when people would hang out at the mall it was just depressing yeah like that's why me and my sister skate because everybody's like so much more fun [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] it's early in the morning and I can't talk to the camera I might be singing today with the congregation um I hadn't thought about that until now that might be strange we're on our way to Euclid Square mall it's a mall that started dying about 20 years ago they've lost most of if not all of their retail stores it's full of churches now there's I think there's about 25 churches in this mall now just pulling up and it seems like it's dead churches are a lot like malls to me I don't usually go to them and never at the same time it seems like most of the businesses are closed in here smells like mold paints peeling from the ceiling there's literally cobwebs but you can hear people singing in the background somewhere [Music] kind of wish there was still like a popcorn shop here or something to mask the smell of mold I'm sure it's gonna smell a bit like perfume soon everybody in their Sunday best and now I'm going to try to put a tie on I might need to get somebody's help I think you do it like this though a little short again don't twist it through the hole slide it up all right should I tuck it I should probably tuck my it yeah it's a pastor hello great to meet you we're so happy to have you guys with us today I'm so happy to be here so what are we going to be uh witnessing today you know what it's gonna be so off the hook oh good uh as the kids say yeah we just enjoy the presence of the Lord six years ago Pastor Forrest took over the beauty salon where she used to get her hair done and turned it into a Baptist Church when we came to the mall with our children with the stores and and the beauty salons and all of that we may see people passing by we say hi and keep going but now it's like a a big Fellowship we get to know one another yeah there's a connection now it's a connection yes and we invite people that has done anything imaginable whether you are a prostitute a murderer whatever baggage that you have come into this space this is a safe place it's a safe place yes so I have to admit that I've only had I think one day in church my whole life okay I have strong morals I think I'm a good person but uh I can tell it's just the presence of the Lord that lives in me yeah I can tell right thank you yeah I'm excited I'm nervous [Music] [Music] drums are loud It's Gonna Get live in here huh it's probably the earliest gig I've been to in a while everybody put your hands together for Faith Baptist choir [Applause] [Music] yeah my name is Rosemary locksick and I'm general manager of Euclid Square Mall I've never put flyers out or you know space for rent bring your church I never did any of that because they just come and I always tell them when I get to church number 30 then I will put on my cap and my gown and I will be the Mother Superior of them all but how do you all know that there's people out there right now saying that you you're not gonna make it somebody said you're not gonna make it but when I pick up what's up [Music] [Music] the service was full on it was almost three hours before Pastor Forrest took the mic [Music] then she put me on the spot [Music] listen guys Rick told me something he said I'm a little bit nervous uh but let me tell you something I fell in love with them when I opened I came through the door I met him I have not met him before but he don't realize what a true child of God he is so I'm gonna let him say something and he talked about he's shy but he don't have to be shy around us amen come all the way uh the music and the love the joy here has just been overwhelming actually for me and I really appreciate you guys letting us come here and sharing this foreign [Applause] [Music] I got a lot of hugs today which is nice smell like perfume it's fun actually it's really fun I would like to start more days like that every so often I'd look around and like oh yeah this is a repurposed space people used to get their hair cut here now they're playing some funky bass it felt normal felt like that should have been there I'd say this is better than like going to buy a new phone or going to get shoes in the mall [Music] [Music] you're gonna need your dust mask for this one all right I'll do it Greg wanted me to come back to Rolling Acres he claimed there was more to the mall than meets the eye into the dark to the abyss he didn't just go back there to make zombie movies he filmed paranormal investigations too the following video contains a compilation of documented and archived footage filmed over the course of four years at the former Ron Acres Mall and surrounding complex we do a little bit of paranormal research in here what is that well we go in and we look for any kind of abnormal activity like any kind of talking Whispering noises right music and we've caught all of that recorded it recorded yep that over there what third movement it came like right behind you and we can hear them so we can ask a question are you here right now sometimes we'll hear you yeah wow what was that like creepy what's Damon doing over there taking a little bit of behind the scenes checking for anything that might pop up he's got a little recorder too with infrared night vision check this out oh wow look at that you found Spirits in here well in fact with video when I did my walk through yeah I panned in to this actual theater yeah and sitting right here was a black figure kind of seated like this I think he's watching a movie yeah just a black shadowy figure sitting right there when I pan back it was gone wow I'd like to get out of this moldy room starting to make me hallucinate we're the only ones here but we're not the only ones here whenever you feel like you're being watched or you thought you caught movement most likely you have we even caught a skateboard oddly enough doing what like oh you uh you have footage of a ghost skater no we have audio what sounds like the roller so the skateboard rolling up and you hear the kick up wow yeah in all my years of skating I'd never heard of a skate ghost but if I were a scapegoast why would I haunt Rolling Acres Mall do you think that it's where the person died that their spirit will be at I think a lot of it is that's where they choose to be so why would they choose Rolling Acres that I'm drawing to the conclusion because of its history it was bustling back in the day and then maybe we're also starting to believe that the people that used to come here remember the Heyday right maybe when they passed away they'd go back to the place they remember the most and maybe to them it's still open right huh I gotta go find a planner to pee in right along here all right ah there's actually a nice breeze coming in from the open skylight not a bad urinal Greg and Damon took me out to the parking lot to show me some gadgets they'd been working on oh wow this is the crawler wow this is actually a body from a Humvee you can get at like Walmart sure four-wheel drive it will go through anything camcorder sends a live feed via this cable sends it straight to the control box right here yeah man this is some engineering huh a lot of engineering when it's recording I'm listening in live via the headphones we can actually hear them talk they are spirits yeah right disembodied Spirits people who've passed on right now sometimes you got ones that were never people okay how does that work those are the Demonic ones okay those are the ones we stay away from all right okay we actually got a piece of equipment for them guys too there's an EMF generator can I hold it yeah go ahead I like the logo on it yeah this is something I came up with just was playing with it Electric magnetic field okay and it sends out a solid EMF field okay and then I can flip it to pulse what are the pulsing is doing we've actually discovered with the pulse it hurts demons the most we actually picked up the demon on recording saying turn that off or I will break it my buddy Matt calls it Ghostbusters yeah yeah with the uh ghost trap so you can do this with it and then zap them yep on the smartphone we have EMF detector it'll pick up EMF Fields you can get it on the App Store yeah oh you can pick that up also we use Ghost Radar it's called Ghost Radar yeah with all this what we do is we go in with scientific equipment and we go in with a scientific mindset and that's what all this equipment is about I got to say your level of commitment is pretty impressive our plan is to go around back to the building to where there was some murders in 1986 and look for Paranormal Activity they're pretty sure that we're going to get spooked tonight Greg and Damon told me about an Infamous local named Richard cooey who back in 1986 kidnapped two young women took them behind Rolling Acres and murdered them kind of watch your footing all right yeah it's kind of uh marshy out here there's a lot of big puddles and a lot of mosquitoes Greg and Damon are setting up their equipment Now Greg is this the spot that that this women were murdered yep they were murdered right back there right back there yep which is terrible EVP session one we're outside of Rolling Acres this is Greg with Damon and we are filming out here with Vice and the host Rick at the 86 murder site setting up the crawler Damon's going to operate the Black Box his name is the official Black Box operator if you guys whisper tag yourself tagging means like I'm Greg if I zip something up if I flick something or make a noise of slice noise that I'll tag I'll say Damon smacking a bug yeah something like that yeah Rick's swatting mosquitoes again yeah because it helps out later on review because we're actually officially starting all this stuff we're officially starting this so I'm just going to move the crawler forward yeah it's getting bogged down pretty good on the grass is there anybody out here want to say hello if you're out here we have something for you to play with are the two girls here we're looking for the two girls that were murdered here back in 86. are you here we're here with a couple new people today it's okay you could come out it's got a DOT right behind Rick what's behind me okay that's an appearance did you guys just move no I think someone uh might be over there a half hour into my first paranormal investigation there were no signs of any ghosts but there were plenty of mosquitoes I think behind my ear I now have about five mosquito bites in one spot did any of you talk no not me heard a low male voice that Richard we're not here to harm you unless you're Richard unless you're Richard cooey my name is Richard would you like to plug into this listen yeah I won't have a listen do you want to come out and say something we as well come out and say hi do you not want to come out and talk we're gonna wrap it up here in a minute is there anything you want to say to Rick even though I was listening intently I heard nothing I don't know if it was me or Greg's crawler but the ghosts weren't biting we just did an EVP session here where the 86 murders happened and we didn't quite hear anything but uh Greg and Damon are going to listen to the recorders see if they find any extra sounds that are unexplainable or Maybe explainable we go in skeptical of any place we go to We Believe because of what we recorded over the past we know they're out there and we've documented it several times you can't deny documented evidence that says they're here some Spirits don't move on okay they stay for whatever reason okay yeah that's that's your belief that's and they come out to Spook you we just finished the EVP session I guess what I took away from it is they're True Believers but they're honestly just a couple of guys having fun in the woods I mean I was enjoying myself out there it was kind of fun just to listen I think there are a couple of good guys and they just this is what they're into you know what I mean thanks again thanks for coming out Rick thanks for teaching my time in Northeast Ohio was almost up and it got me thinking I'd been seeing ghosts this whole time abandoned places it doesn't matter if they're malls or factories they're ghosts of a city's past Rolling Acres Euclid Square Randall Park they're ghost malls and one day I'll be a scapegoast everything's clean [Music] everyone's wrong [Music] as wide as they see [Music] well yes [Music] everything is [Music] nobody wanted to dance [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: VICE

Views: 1,132,530

Keywords: documentary, documentaries, docs, interview, culture, lifestyle, world, exclusive, independent, underground, videos, journalism, vice guide, vice.com, vice, vice magazine, vice mag, vice videos, film, short films, movies, dead mall, abandoned mall, exploring with steve, dead malls, dead mall series, abandoned america, dead malls of america, dead mall dan bell, dead mall exploration, dead mall tour, Rick Mccrank, rick mccrank abandoned, rick mccrank vice, rick mccrank skateboarding

Id: EBZQeZ5Q1w8

Length: 43min 55sec (2635 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 17 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Who da fuck is Rick McCrank all my homies fuck with DAN BELL!

[u/jason559]

Anybody have any verification on the "child crushed by the elevator"? No mention anywhere. The person in this video who says it made an Instagram post and he told people who asked to come to their library and look through the 1970s newspapers. There must have been dozens of people who were a witness to it!

[u/mxganxx]

Anyone know the song at 18:49?