48 Arrested at Abandoned IBM Campus After TikTok Trend
The arrests show how viral social media challenges are turning abandoned corporate campuses into sites of property crime and public safety risks.
Reporting from 1 source: GIGAZINE.
Over the past four months, 48 people have been arrested for trespassing at a former IBM office complex in Somers, New York. Thirty of those arrested were teenagers. A fire was started by trespassers in March, and one man was charged with felony possession of a loaded gun and theft. The complex, designed by I.M. Pei, has been abandoned since 2016. Local police attribute the surge to a viral TikTok video from winter 2025.
The former IBM campus in Somers, New York, was designed by architect I.M. Pei and once housed 3,000 employees. Since IBM left in 2016, the property has changed hands. But in the four months since February 2026, police have arrested 48 trespassers, 30 of them teenagers. A viral TikTok video from winter 2025 is blamed for the influx. On March 30, a fire damaged a service building. One man in his 20s was charged with a felony after bringing a loaded gun and stealing items. The property owner called the situation 'vandalism.'
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.