Man Traveled 1,000 Miles To Explore Abandoned Pittsburgh Mall: Police

WEST MIFFLIN, PA — An Oklahoma man who traveled more than 1,000 miles to shoot a video inside the abandoned and condemned Century III Mall is facing charges.

Police have charged Carter Banks with criminal and defiant trespassing.

They identified him from a video he posted on social media about a month ago of his time inside the mall. The video appeared to have been removed from his various sites as of Thursday morning.

Banks, whose online moniker is BigBankZ, is known for exploring abandoned buildings and has a prominent social media presence: 2.7 million TikTok followers, 445,000 YouTube followers and 154,000 Instagram followers.

West Mifflin officials condemned the mall in July. A judge last month ordered the mall's owner, Moonbeam Capital Investments, to pay the borough $150,000 in safety-related fines.

Once one of the largest malls in the world, Century III's interior closed in 2019. J.C. Penney, which had an exterior entrance, was the mall's last remaining store; it went out of business in 2020.

Since then, squatters and drug activity have been reported in the mall's derelict ruins. Authorities have repeatedly advised people against breaking into the graffiti-strewn building, which has mold, pooled water and no power.