The Receipt at Rolling Acres

On a 28-degree Friday night in December 2015, Kingston and his friend Jack slipped through a rusted loading dock door into the abandoned Rolling Acres Mall in Akron, Ohio. The mall had been closed since Halloween 2008. The Sears anchor store followed in 2011. Everyone said demolition would start soon, and the two urban explorers wanted the last good footage before the bulldozers came. Kingston carried his handheld Sony camcorder with an LED mounted on top—the same one he'd used since he was seventeen. Jack clipped a GoPro to his chest harness. Their rule was simple, the same one they'd had since their first abandoned building: only pictures, nothing leaves with us.

Within an hour, both of them broke it.

What They Took

Jack found a cardboard box in a dark storefront, water-stained and soft at the corners, marked "Holiday Corner Returns 12/96." Inside was a snow globe containing a tiny model of Rolling Acres Mall, priced at $14.99. He slipped it into his jacket pocket. Kingston spotted an enamel Christmas tree pin with the mall's logo, $2.99, lying on top of the stock. He slid it into his jeans pocket without telling Jack. "I still think about how easy it was," he said. "Nobody stopped me. Nothing flickered. My heart didn't even speed up."