Cass Tech was a special explore. Obviously lots of Detroiters got in but when we went it was boarded up very tight and we just happened to be there when the door was wide open. The amount of (perfectly usable, wasted) stuff left behind was amazing. We heard someone inside with us and it turned out to be a scrapper. I think that was my first run in with a scrapper in Detroit, but there were many more to come.

In Detroit at the time, scrapping was the only way a lot of people could keep their heads above water. There were no jobs available for anyone. While it was certainly stealing, the government of Detroit was run by criminals and was robbing everyone blind too. To this day, you’ve never really been able to say that the government in Detroit has the best interests of the citizens in mind. It is hopelessly corrupt. It’s hard to get upset over people scrapping, especially a building owned by the city.