In the 90s, my buddy and I earned a living by stealing non-ferrous metals from abandoned military bases around Moscow and selling it to fences. We had no other way to feed our families.
Don’t think bad about us - we really only fleeced the abandoned ones. We did not touch the sealed bases even if the loot would be better from those. Our shtick back then was collecting information about the kind of secret military bases that did not even have a street leading up to them, only a narrow underground tunnel. Some of them had helicopter landing spots, which were camouflaged from satellites. Yes, those kind of bases really existed. And they probably exist even now. We would drive our beat-up van as close as possible, hide it, take our tools, backpacks and walk the rest of the way. There we would tear apart and cut out what we could, mostly of course copper, tin, brass and other alloys. Occasionally we found silver. Well, a few times we found some gold and palladium. A rare and dangerous luck, that almost bit us in the ass in the end- times back then were wild, a lot of bandits around..but that is another story.
Anyway. Some mushroom pickers have told us about that particular place. It had the characteristic signs: an antenna tower, a nifty barbed wire with step voltage, all that stuff. We had already received information about those secret military bases earlier from mushroom pickers, fishermen, other folk- and we always rewarded them. Mushroom pickers, foresters, hunters..they would give us information and we would always give them a small cut from our sales. It was not much but we never forgot anyone. And they also never forgot about us and would give us leads to new places. Those people who would not take the risk of climbing over the barbed wire- or those who already got burned trying to break into such a base and understood that it’s not that simple.
Anyway, we arrived, drove the van deeper into the forest, camouflaged it with tree branches. We also cleared up the track, for just in case. We reached the base fairly quickly, the forest was dense but not a thicket. The distance was about half a kilometer. Okay so far. The weather was good, the Indian summer that year was better than the real one. The barbed wire was turned off of course, but we still checked with special tongs before approaching and cutting an entrance for ourselves. We were quiet- you never know.. And it was very smart from us, as we soon found out. Of course the most part of such bases is underground. But we tried not to go underground- usually, the tunnel and the service premises are down there and all of this was either sealed or blown up before the base was abandoned. They could also have planted mines down there, to scare the overly curious people off. We didn’t want to find out.
We passed the hangars, the barracks- all was untouched. Even the aluminium dishes in the canteen were there! Aluminium was of course cheaper than copper, but those forks and spoons in commodity quantity alone would make our raid worthwhile. But we were mostly interested in control points and equipment facilities, transformer booths and garages. That is why we did not stuff our backpacks but continued on.
Later, as Vlad and me were trying to get things straight, we were amazed how none of us noticed anything. We were experienced and careful guys- but it was as if someone enchanted us. On one hand of course, everything looked as it should be: the power is cut off, the doors are ajar, some windows are broken, the paths are starting to get overgrown..On the other hand the dishes look like new, ladles swaying slightly on the hooks.. Of course, there were drafts there. But if there were drafts- why were we smelling food? It smelled like jerky. Vlad was smelling it too. But we just joked about it instead of hauling ass out of there as fast as possible. And again, the floors were clean, the tables and benches were clean, standing in their correct places..Even an idiot should understand that if the base was abandoned at least a few weeks ago, everything should be full of dust and smears. And if it was abandoned just recently- why are the paths overgrown, so many windows broken? It didn’t add up..
And also -there was no agitation. None at all. No posters, no murals, no Lenin busts, not even flagpoles at the place. Of course those secret bases were camouflaged from surveillance from space: nobody mowed the lawns, there were always big trees on the territory, usually pines. All the buildings were made to look like a summer camp or a forestry. Even the antennas were camouflaged as a lightning rod and had some kind of weather vane. But there were always some of the “Glory to CPSU” or “USSR is our homeland”. Either as a mosaic or with different coloured bricks as a picture or at least painted on the wall. But here there was nothing of the sort. Should it have made us suspicious? It should have. But somehow we didn’t pay attention back then.
Anyway- we crossed the outer area and made our way to the transformer booths. Transformer booths mean reserve generators and copper. They were never taken from abandoned military bases, only those like us could gut them. Nothing was touched, never used. That meant a hundredweight of copper, at least. Back then we would have gotten fifty bucks for us both for just the copper alone. Back then fifty bucks was the yearly wage of a state employee. Draw your own conclusions, as they say.
Suddenly, Vlad says he forgot his torchlight. I take out my own- and it barely shines, the battery is dead. Apparently they sold me an expired battery as a new one, it happened often back in the day. And its very hard to work inside a transformer booth without a torch, even if it is a sunny day and you take out all the doors and blinds.
We didn’t want to go back but we had to. Most likely, this decision has saved our life. Vlad wanted to go alone first but we had a rule- don’t split during jobs. Just a rule, a child of bitter experience. We did not feel any danger, I swear. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, grasshoppers were jumping around in the grass…