I've always found the relics of the Soviet Army in Germany very interesting places to explore, so when the opportunity came up to explore the huge garrison that had originally been built by the Wehrmacht from 1934 under the name "Camp III", of course we had to go and check it out.
It was only a few minutes from the hotel that we had used as our base of explorations for a few days during our summer vacation in 2018, so after a short breakfast, we loaded our gear into the car and drove to where we expected the best access point into the area.
We tried to park inconspicuously enough, which meant having to walk about 15 Minutes from the car to the main entrance of the garrison. On the way, right in front of the old barrier that blocked the road, we saw a small car, which we assumed belonged to some other explorers that weren't as prudent with their parking as we were. As we reached the main gate, there was a large hole in the fence (one of many, I presume), so the access was easy enough, and we started with our exploration right away.
A few minutes later, we could already see a group of young people with a drone. They were rather loud and running around - the kind of behavior that lots of times will get you caught in locations patrolled by security...
It was a very hot day, so we moved slowly and tried to stay in the shade, taking little breaks every now and then to drink some water. About an hour after we started our exploration, the security guard found us. All of a sudden, a white car was standing right in front of us with an older man sitting at the wheel. It was too hot to run away, so we did what we always do in these cases: Smile, wave and say hi. I think that the guy was a bit surprised that we didn't run away and told him that he got us and we knew that it was forbidden to be there, but we still wanted to explore the place.
The security guard looked at us from top to bottom, saw our gear, safety shoes and everything and said, "I can see you're not doing this for the first time, are you?".
We answered truthfully, told him about what we're doing and for how long we've been doing it. We had a really nice talk with him for about half an hour. He asked us if the small car in front of the barrier was ours, and we said that our car was parked about 15 minutes away. The security guard said, "Well, at least you parked correctly, and the small car belong to the other crew I've seen running around here."
He even told us a few tricks he uses to catch explorers. For example, he takes off his security jacket, takes a small camera and asks groups of explorers how they got in, and after they tell him, he shows his ID and escorts them off the premises.
Well, to cut a long story short, in the end the security guard told us where in the garrison we could find more interesting buildings before he left us and let us go on with our exploration.
I can tell you, this was one of the most pleasant encounters I've ever had with a security guard!
We spent a few more hours exploring the garrison, and as we left, we crossed paths with the security guard again. He had caught the other guys (the ones who had parked badly) and was giving them a rather angry lecture.
When he saw us, he turned around, waved and wished us a nice day - so there's the difference between running away from security or staying for a nice little chat. Well in some instances anyway ;)
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