Young people trespass into abandoned buildings and infrastructure

Young people are increasingly entering disused buildings and infrastructure sites without permission to film stunts for social media, raising concerns about vandalism, theft and potential security risks, ERR reported in its programme Pealtnägija.

Videos shared in online communities have featured the former Harju County Court building in Tallinn, Swedbank’s vacated former headquarters, the Viimsi winter garden, a nuclear facility in Paldiski and Levira’s television and communications mast in Valgjärve.

“The main aim is to find places people cannot access,” said Anders Allandi, head of the East Harju investigation unit at the Northern Prefecture. He said videos are especially popular when they show a difficult way of getting inside.

One popular location for dangerous stunts is a huge elevator structure in Tallinn’s Hiiu district. It has stood empty for nearly 20 years and rises well above the surrounding buildings.

Jan-Erik Moon, who has mapped old buildings for 20 years, and Raigo Kotkas, who became interested in the hobby six years ago and now runs a YouTube channel about it, said urban exploration in Estonia once mainly involved visiting old military structures and shelters. They describe themselves as hobby historians and photographers who try to visit locations properly. Moon has also led official tours of the Hiiu elevator with the owners’ permission.

They said the number of people taking part in urban exploration has surged in the past two years. Where enthusiasts were once mainly motivated by history, architecture and discovery, they said, younger participants are now competing to outdo one another.

Urban exploration is not inherently negative, the report noted, but nearly 500 TikTok accounts in Estonia are now linked to the subject, with thousands of clips posted. Much of the content shows illegal activity by young intruders. Other forms include “roofing”, or climbing high structures, and “digging”, which involves exploring tunnels and other underground spaces.

Police have also noticed a clear increase, Allandi said. Young people often start with accessible, well-known buildings, such as the music school and Liivalaia courthouse, before moving on to more extreme targets, including masts, excavators and rooftops.

State Real Estate Ltd sales manager Marko Künnapas said the company manages about 1,000 buildings across roughly 600 properties in Estonia. Its portfolio includes a five-building music school complex in Tallinn’s Kivimäe district, which has mostly stood empty for about a decade and has featured in many videos of break-ins and vandalism.

The company has worked to secure its buildings, but the effort comes at a cost, Künnapas said. Expenses for a single property can reach tens of thousands of euros.

Experts cited in the programme warned that, in an extreme case, reckless trespassers could be exploited in hybrid warfare.