AUBURN-
On a day off from Orangevale High School, four teens end up in a kind of off-campus detention – cited for climbing under and then hanging off of Auburn’s Foresthill Bridge.
“Embarrassing…just like ugh,” said one 17-year-old boy.
A little chagrin for the outcome from teens whose parents agreed to let them speak to FOX40 anonymously, but in the face of no nets or guardrails, none of the healthy fear Placer county sheriff’s deputies wish these kids had for their actions.
“It was pretty sketchy…like scary. I’m kind of scared of heights,” said one of the busted boys.
He says he pushed past his fear because it a beautiful day and he wanted to look at the view.
“We just wanted top get high off the ground and you know be able to see everything that’s going on around us from a different perspective and get a rush out of it,” said one 16-year-old girl.
“Having had a teenager, I know they think they’re just not going to be hurt and one misstep on this bridge 730 feet up…..there’s no saving anybody,” said Dena Erwin with the sheriff’s department.
So what are the teens doing exactly?
“They’re actually going down a steep trail on the side of the structure…jumping over fences and wire…jumping onto the girders that way and then getting on to the catwalk,” Erwin said.
Then comes the lowering themselves down, hanging by their arms and depending on their own strength alone to pull themselves back up.
A flood of Instagram postings show just how popular the trip under the Foresthill Bridge has become, serving as almost an invitation to teen thrill-seekers.
“You get on everyday and see that someone’s been here,” said one of the recently-cited girls.
After a suicidal jump from the bridge last Friday, 10 minors were cited for trespassing here Saturday.
Twenty-four more – mostly from the Sacramento area – were cited Sunday.
Usually, there are just a few such citations written every year.
It’s unclear if any of the warnings will have the desired effect.
One of the teens just cited said she told her parents she was going to head out to the bridge before she came and they understood.
“I think my parents know where i’m coming from when I say I want to come do this kind of stuff,” she said.
The situation’s gotten so bad, deputies are now doing extra patrols in the area when they’re not on a call.
But it’s draining resources away from other problems in the county and that’s not all.
“It puts deputies in danger on these steep trails,” said Erwin.
They take the risk to keep others from a greater one, but the power of social media and the false notion of invincibility may just be too destructive and dynamic of a duo to beat.
Just over an hour after one group of high schoolers were cited and sent home Tuesday, FOX40 spotted three other teens running out on the catwalk – no ropes, no guardrails, no net – between them and an uncertain fate.
The citations given out over the last few days mean the teens have to appear in court and face varying fines determined by a judge.
