Milwaukee Record does not condone sneaking/breaking into, messing around in, and/or dropping trou in abandoned malls.
Milwaukee YouTuber Tommy G recently made news (and picked up plenty of subscribers) with his “Kia Boys Documentary,” a 16-minute video where the affable host talks to and hangs out with Milwaukee’s infamous car thieves. More than 3 million views later, G recently followed it up with a Milwaukee YouTuber rite of passage: sneaking/breaking into the long-abandoned Northridge Mall and filming it. He brought along some buddies, too.
Okay, he horses around in the sewers for a while, and the Northridge part doesn’t begin until the 4:20 mark (heh), but still.
Beyond the usual illegal entries and property damage at the hands of fledgling YouTube stars, Northridge has been in the news lately. Or, to be more precise, it’s been on fire lately. The Milwaukee Fire Department responded to three fires inside the increasingly rundown empty mall in July, and another fire this week. The fire department isn’t thrilled.
“The whole rest of the northwest side is without emergency coverage right now, as we’re out here putting out fires in a pile of rubbish,” Chief Aaron Lipski told WISN 12 this week. “I’d like you to look at the line of firefighters back here. These men and women have to go into this building repeatedly, putting their lives at extreme risk, because it has not been properly secured. It should have been razed a long time ago.”
Northridge Mall closed in 2003. It’s currently owned by a Chinese-based investor group called U.S. Black Spruce Enterprise Group Inc. The City of Milwaukee issued an order to demolish Northridge in 2019, but, um, the mall still hasn’t been demolished.
Also: flashback to that time (2017) when another YouTuber messed around in Northridge Mall, except this time he turned it into a kid-friendly winter wonderland.
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