In July 1992, CBS 8 went into the El Cajon sewers to talk with the teens living below ground

Teens were living in the sewer system under El Cajon in the summer of 1992. If you know any of these teens seen in this story please let us know at [e-mail]

[@stephenfitzgerald7450]

I lived through this in the mid eighties. I learned how to operate in survival mode and it has served me well into my adult years. I've long since left this behind but haven't forgotten where I come from. Every time I feel things are tough I can remind myself exactly how bad it can get. I feel this experience had given me the drive to be successful (I am). I now own three homes, have my own business, and am able to not work anymore.

[@Ap_twsh]

nice

[@EdenHellCipher]

I grew up in El Cajon in the 90s. It’s always been hell, so I get this. I hope these kids are doing well now.

[@joshuaS7883]

Thanks for the well wishes. I was one of those kids, and am doing much better these days.👌

[@antoniogallegos4846]

Those were the best times

[@batnayanineveh6082]

I’m not from California, but what is so bad about El Cajon that people would call it hell? Genuinely curious.

[@PACbelltech1]

@@batnayanineveh6082 it's full of homeless encampments and drug addicts. Was once a beautiful city. Sad.

[@tommurphy4307]

@@batnayanineveh6082 probably because they have a republican mayor.

[@joshuaS7883]

I’m one of those kids, but not one in the video. All grown up now. I’m 43 now, but that’s pretty much where I (we) lived from 12-15; beneath the streets of El Cajon (“Hells Gates”), that was my home… my world. Was some of the best days of my youth spent there. Happy to answer any questions you may have.

[@diegorodriguez-ge7ef]

What carear path did you take if you don’t mind me asking

[@joshuaS7883]

@@diegorodriguez-ge7ef Currently a contractor, and I'm also a full time student.

[@gliza]

I’m from El Cajon and I am your age. I grew up around all the tweekers and rif raf and there’s a good chance I crossed paths with these kids. Maybe even you. I dunno. I grew up in Rancho and off Granite. Though I explored many storm drains as a kid, I never heard of Hell’s Gate. Where were these particular storm drains located within El Cajon?

[@Phoenixhunter157]

Why did you have to live there. Was it a bad home environment you had to get away from. ..thanks in advance. I had friends who I watched go through this around this time in the 90’s. My friends were kicked out of their home.Some had run away. Hope you’re well now. 🙏🏽

[@PistolDeck]

Did you know John-o?

[@caruniv3287]

News flash there are still people living in storm drains in El Cajon. The stories you hear in El Cajon can be sad and heart breaking.

[@reginaglennhill5097]

Wow

[@hot0527]

I wonder where these kids are today...

[@Spartan-ts5dy]

Probably zombies from all those drug they been doing

[@derekbuxton6626]

I think they eventually got their act together. I don’t think anyone can live like that for a long period.

[@derekbuxton6626]

@M. L. They’re all dead?

[@joshuaS7883]

I was one of those kids. I’m still around… doing much better these days then I was back then.

[@ulimateanimeloser]

@@joshuaS7883Which kid were you?

[@eatmysh0rts]

So sad. If they’re still out there it makes sense that it’s the older homeless people we see walking around..

[@realboltfan]

It’s crazy, they walked right by my apartment when going down the alley by Johnson school and I was for sure in there at that time being 12 years old. Bradley park apts 500 chambers street apt A. I grew up traversing that same sewer to get to parkway plaza.

[@adammartinez9641]

People still live down there, hell cajon

[@Elemental_Entity]

The government is too busy catering to the Arabs than to take care of their own people.

[@Dancingontgesun1942]

Would be nice for someone to do an update story on where the kids are now.

[@METALFAN4EVS]

All dead, Fentanyl overdoses.

[@coreycooke3739]

I’m one of those kids. It’s so weird watching this again 30 years later.

[@reginaglennhill5097]

Hey its regina I'm 47 today. Just wondering if you still living in san Diego, have kids now, living a ok life? Happy to know, you can look back at this and say wow! I know you think different today from that adolescent you was before. God bless you! Please please update us by uploading a u-tube video. Thank u

[@Beyondthebayou]

@@coreycooke3739you should write a book a lot of people would be interested

[@sduce619]

@coreycooke3739 which kid are you?

[@SD.61966]

I hope these young kids grew up to be mature Adults

[@joshuaS7883]

Thanks! Some of us did.

[@reginaglennhill5097]

​@@joshuaS7883thank God for you responding to these questions 🙏! So happy you during okay. I pray u give us an update on your life as a grown man vs a young man. Let us know 🙏 I wonder if you have grown children, are you a grandparent, working hard out there, are just knowing life made you the man you are today. Talk to us.

[@tp3521]

Thanks for keeping the investigative journalism going even though it's not popular (#trendy) or profitable!

[@Bernerville]

I myself was homless in San Diego during the early 1990's. Divorce rates hit hard late 80's to mid 1990's. I left to Tijuana in order to wash cars, and work construction. At 18 I left to fresno and slept in a bed for the fist time in 4 years. I had a successful career and I am currently retired, happily married. My wife and I share a beautiful home with 5 Bernice Mountain Dogs. 😮😅. I pray the individuals on the video also found sucess. I will always strongly refuse to be a victim of my past and will always own my mistakes! I always analyze and grow.

[@derekbuxton6626]

Instead of children of the corn, there should be children of the sewer. Too bad they don’t have that many options. Either get abused in some way if they return to their former home or live the sewer. Sad life both ways.

[@nathananderson8204]

Look for the movie called, NIGHTBREED

[@rodgerpiercearchitect]

They’d be better off in lockup

[@RaceMentally]

This is the realist reporting. This doesn’t exist today.

[@MrStarofTruth]

where are those kids now that is horrible , my heart goes out to them...

[@joshuaS7883]

I’m one of ‘em. Still here in San Diego.

[@joshuad1716]

0:45 i think this is the first time I’ve ever heard the word “dank” used in its correct definition lol

[@SickestSlots]

I thought the same thing instead of being used for weed 😂

[@e.a.r.9155]

I went to Chap high School during this time 91-93, saw these guys and more daily (mall rats). we were a bunch of Long-haired Heavy metal Stoners, low life's, partiers, used to get flares from the train tracks behind the bowling alley and would travel all thru 'hells gates' too, but we didn't like this whole crew too much, they were kinda scuzzy like dorky weirdos to us who many of them DID choose that path indirectly, but I've changed Big Time and I hope they did too somehow cause God IS REAL..! 👊🙏👍

[@santeelocal]

Good ol Chap. You can hear that train sometimes at night, even though there's no train lol

[@reginaglennhill5097]

Hey now! God is 👍 good,so happy to know you came out blessed! Nice to see your writing and thank you for updating us on your status. Give me peace you came out blessed okay. I been asking for an update on this since last year. You put the peace in me today 2023 with your response.

[@HAMMER_2.2]

Long hairs, hellyeah🤘🤘

[@reginaglennhill5097]

I'm 46 now. I know these guys are around my age. I wonder what they think k now at almost 🤔 50. Sad days. Pray they doing ok

[@tommurphy4307]

AT 46 they are likely sick or deceased- they don't have health care like real people do, so thats about the end of the line for them.

[@joshuaS7883]

It was a long hard road, but I’m doin pretty alright these days.

[@reginaglennhill5097]

@joshuas8083 it's wonderful to hear back from you! Are you still in California? I know life throws us lots of changes. I want to know if you will be up loading an update of your life as an adult in 2023? I was in san Diego ca during those years. My mother left my father. We are from little Rock arkansas. The kids in the san diego schools back then were so mean to me! I was Country from Arkansas. The only friends who accepted me were young girls who were prostituting at the time and having kids at a young age. To this day, I wish I could see them and give them big hugs.

[@reginaglennhill5097]

@tommurphy4307 Thank you for the answer. Sad. At our age 47, 48, 49, and 50, we should be enjoying our adult children or grandchildren. Living that fast life at a young age takes its toll. Thank you again! Sorry it took me 5 months to say thank you

[@PACbelltech1]

I grew up in East County I was 22 when this article was written I don't remember any of this happening in El Cajon other than party's. Totally remember that der wienerschnitzel. Been a taco shop for years now. Those kids may be the adults living down there now.

[@123perish]

I remember walking through those sewers to get to parkway plaza back in 98 when I was 7yrs old

[@timpage5021]

I grew up in El Cajon , Cedar Glen Apartments. We all hung out down around here and used the tunnels to move from one spot to the next

[@tommyhajimoto6968]

We had one in National City, it was called the Tunnel of hell. I went through it in the early 80s as a preteen as an experience but I didn't live in it.

[@reginaglennhill5097]

So happy you didn't! How during today Tommy any grandbabies or u loving life working hard out here in 2023

[@ericvil600]

Where at

[@tommyhajimoto6968]

@@reginaglennhill5097 working hard I guess no grandkids I'm in Alpine now.

[@tommyhajimoto6968]

@@ericvil600 it was near a restaurant called Keith's on plaza Blvd, I'm sure it's still there. I think they're building an in and out there now. It ended at the Las Palmas pool.

[@TomDodson-by9ze]

I used to live in El cajon until 96and was on the street I would sleep in ditches cardboard boxes and eat out of dumpsters .it's rough but I survived.just don't lose your faith

[@reginaglennhill5097]

Amen! ❤happy to know you okay! Are still living in san Diego in 2023. So expensive.

[@roberthogue5138]

Your title is misleading: it is not a sewer, but a storm drain, most sewers are too small to fit in, and these kids would probably catch typhoid fever!

[@tommurphy4307]

cbs-8 fake news for ya

[@tashavirtue952]

When cbs did the story on me in 2016 I contacted them last year to update them on my current situation. Ariana Cohen is awesome😉

[@DEWAGE83]

Were you in this video?

[@tommurphy4307]

@@DEWAGE83 bs

[@reginaglennhill5097]

Nice I hope they update this soon!

[@imazombieee8949]

​@@DEWAGE83 Yes not in the vid he's mentioning himself 24 yrs later kuz he just sux at lif

[@bullyhomestead7232]

There was recently in hemet under 7th street the bums literally built walls and shit with materials from the local home depot they had multiple rooms and even decorations look up the video it’s crazy.

[@tommurphy4307]

well we have meth labs in OUR drain pipes

[@daisyy99]

I believe there should be a follow up news story, and someone passing flyers about social programs. Emancipated youth at 16. Food programs, medi-cal. Education grants. Counseling. Transportation. 3-4 persons wking min wage jobs can potentially afford a studio.

[@daisyy99]

My background is an educator and at EDD. There were Jobs Corps placements with housing, Youth Employment, CCC, Jr college with work study etc.

[@reginaglennhill5097]

I agreed an update for sure!

[@plutoplatters]

Ahead of their time !! Now the same tunnels are full of older age people that can't afford 2k per month STUDIO apartments. It's really a mystery !! Lets do a study now.

[@alansherby4046]

Those are storm drains, I know sewers sound better for the story but get your facts straight.

[@michelletanner7047]

Find out where these people are now? That would be a pretty good story..

[@joshuaS7883]

Some of our stories are good. But most, not so much.

[@chriswoolever]

There used to be punk shows down there too

[@onthemountainwithmike1378]

if you go there today, it's 10 times worse.

[@bullyhomestead7232]

Right!

[@feifongwong4138]

Not really, kids don't really do this today. If you were there back in the 90s, you'd know it looks like it does now, but more dangerous.

[@onthemountainwithmike1378]

@@feifongwong4138 Not much has changed except the problem is worse. here is the proof. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y2ellqKPZcydsKM

[@michaeltabanao9014]

Yep, unfortunately they are still there at Magnolia, just 34 years older

[@0clu4]

have proof?

[@michaeltabanao9014]

@@0clu4 55 year old on a Diamondback, Redline....Dead Giveaway🙈

[@0clu4]

@@michaeltabanao9014 not proof

[@michaeltabanao9014]

@@0clu4 let you get the DNA

[@tommurphy4307]

maybe half of them are still alive

[@coreycooke3739]

Holy moly. I was super young in this video. I wonder what happened to everybody else. Damn.

[@HooliganArts]

You should do a story time. That's very interesting. How long did you guys live down there?

[@reginaglennhill5097]

Hello Corey I saw your photo of you today with your babies! It's nice things turned around for you! Crazy how we deal with situations as teenagers versus adults. Wonderful! nice you wrote something on this! You look great and your babies are beautiful! God continue to blessed you

[@TreyTruth619]

Yeah why were grown ass men chilling with kids ? Pedos was normal then ?

[@gregorymalchuk272]

Which one are you? Were you the guy on the right at 4:08 with the arm tattoos?

[@kathryneast6919]

What happened to these kids?

[@Ap_twsh]

Different time, but we've come a long way from those times in such a short period. After people realized in the 50s the inequalities that were prevalent in those time and after, that is when the rebelliousness came and for good reasons. Now we are getting closer to reaching a state of equilibrium and thanks to the technology and having access to the world in our finger tips we have the ability to share and make change more so now than ever before.

[@reginaglennhill5097]

Ok

[@D0ndiegoo]

i could watch these videos all day every day. release the vault lol. i want ti catch up with these people

[@TheThemattyo1]

Fast foward to today and you'll find the same scenarios-stories) behind why alot of youth are homeless . Visit that same area today , you might find one of them that part time still reside there , or someone that can brief you about the status and or the where abouts of those at the time, priceless younsters.....

[@Andy-ch9yi]

I was around 16 when this aired. I was close to the age of some kids here. When I was a little younger (11-13), we used to go in the storm drains for fun to see where they would lead. I still recognize some of the entrances shown in this video. Probably wouldn't recognize a more recent video, but after all, this was in 1992.

[@cden900]

Damn I seen like 4 of them recently all cracked out by 7/11

[@realboltfan]

on chambers probably?

[@robertwalls1729]

My brother and I visited some in 92 empty but huge we where kids .

[@DidierBan]

And now how that place looks in 2022 ? Who lives there ?

[@rvb4187]

El Cajon has Many more homeless now and a new batch of these kids are living the same lifestyle.

[@DidierBan]

@@rvb4187 , you right , I’m not people hater specially homeless people, I was homeless once . But what California legislators have done to the state is worst than before for the Teenagers and for the Homeless . I do wish I didn’t see that many homeless people in our towns.

[@joshuaS7883]

Most of us who stayed down there in the 90’s were not homeless. We were “runaways.”

[@dcree3730]

These were el cajon pekerwoods

[@joshuaS7883]

😄! They didn’t go down there. The EC Peckerwoods were too “classy,” to hang out down there.

[@jamesdawson6424]

I don't what they were talking about. It's definitely by choice

[@joshuaS7883]

It’s obvious you don’t know what they are talking about…😁

[@jamesdawson6424]

​@@joshuaS7883it's obvious i don't remember writing this or what this video is about. But I know I m right you chump

[@kitdaberserker555]

Those poor kids. Now people are doing this by choice.

[@sidezskateshop]

And look how much better San Diego county is these days!

[@ozodari6160]

Lol it's way worse.

[@tommurphy4307]

@@ozodari6160 sarcasm

[@joshuaS7883]

Ha!😄

[@commanderbell1965]

I remember seeing this on the during the 80s

[@bonsummers2657]

The grunge movement, which has persisted to the present.

[@lexlax3498]

THEY R NINJA TURTLES NOW & SAVE THE 619‼️‼️

[@labrxx]

Hey look it’s my ex.

[@omargarcia2046]

In 2022 they called "HOMELESS"

[@vmcampos]

your point is?

[@MrQwiksix21]

I bet they used to get some really good METH back then. 1992 this city was swamped with cooks out in El cajon.

[@mauroortiz9180]

Half of all the trailers in Santee in the 90s were meth labs.

[@MrQwiksix21]

@@mauroortiz9180 Ha!!

[@EdenHellCipher]

Pretty sure I lived down the street from one on Burnet street.

[@tommurphy4307]

@@mauroortiz9180 but not el cajon...all righty then....

[@mauroortiz9180]

@@tommurphy4307 I'm pretty sure El Cajon was the same.

[@nathananderson8204]

These kids almost seem friendly and articulate compared to the throngs of homeless there today. Many of these in this video are most likely dead.

[@TreyTruth619]

Articulate but sleep in a sewer you sound silly 😂 nothing smart about living in waste lol

[@sleep4200]

We are the children of the night 🌃

[@littlejimmy2825]

Wow a video from 1992 and it only has a couple thousand views, I can't believe more people haven't seen this.

[@sbs3003ses]

Please tell me your not retarded

[@juanperez3148]

It was posted only yesterday....

[@littlejimmy2825]

@@juanperez3148 no it says 1992, it was posted in 1992

[@njv1234]

@@littlejimmy2825 little Jimmy, I’ve been looking for you. I’m your dad. I knew I shouldn’t have been boozing up so badly that night. Look how you came out. I love you son 🍻

[@HooliganArts]

@@littlejimmy2825 lol KZbin didn’t exist in 1992

[@plutoplatters]

Keep raising prices of EVERYTHING that you know we'll do this will cure it.

[@ricardoibarra6455]

I guess in 1992 they weren’t many homeless in El Cajon.

[@uhurus2]

it was more of a hick town

[@dabmclovin3632]

This was probably the start of the homeless people in El Cajon.

[@User-jr7rk]

What? You guys have it backwards. The 1990s was the most dangerous era in El Cajon. Gangs, homeless, and tweakers everywhere

[@tommurphy4307]

no, they were living in the vast underground drainage systeM that DOESN'T EXIST

[@joshuaS7883]

@@User-jr7rk Exactly. El Cajon was considered a very dangerous place to be walking the streets during those years, especially at night. Which is why we took the tunnels everywhere we went.

[@charlesc.6767]

NOT SEWERS, Storm drain

[@dabmclovin3632]

I bet some of the are living in too

[@notyetskeletal4809]

We are the children of the niiight🎶

[@joshuaS7883]

🎤😄🎶

[@anthonykeppler3885]

??? Why

[@0clu4]

literally said it in the video some of them were abused at home, some of them just did it to he cool, and some of them got kicked out

[@heathercarpenter5497]

El cajon? They could just hop on the orange and gone downtown 🤣

[@100shoya]

And now there’s raves there 🤙🏾

[@carolynsanchez3797]

Running away social worker

[@boogieman1765]

Find a bunch of dead bodies down there if you go check today 🤣

[@adrienasqmuels8826]

Maybe they use too be rich are something going on in their homes that this is ok. If this is true I don't even judge two three sides too every story these kids are survivors and they want too live these kids. Are survivors they really really really want too live. So this is a spiritual test from god and they really love each other so they take good of each other this is a test I j use too dumpster dive at 10. I'm 58

[@tommurphy4307]

yeah- they used to be KINGPINS back in the day

[@adamfoulk5865]

Wow bro

[@jacktastick]

Looks just like surface. 😂

[@onthemountainwithmike1378]

Here is a Video I made of all the Trash at this Location Yesterday: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eF6an6eqo7V6mJo

[@joshuaS7883]

Cool video!👍 But that’s not Hells Gates. Though the tunnels in your video are ones that we used to frequent just about daily when we were kids. In middle school we’d hang out & drink 40’s & smoke cigs on top of the roof of that commercial building you can see in the background there in your video that says “Vista Paint” on it…ah, “memories.” There was a nice view of the city from up there. The tunnels you are picking up trash in we used to call, “The Short Cut,” because it was a quick way to get from the Family Fun Center amusement park (aka Boomers) over to the Mall (aka Parkway Plaza). It cut about 5-minutes off the walk, and was safer than running across the highway; but sometimes we ran across the highway in that spot anyways just for fun/the rush!😄…kids are so stupid. Those tunnels in your vid run between Graves Ave. and Magnolia Ave. To get to hells gates from there you would have to take the drainage system west about 2-miles, til you get to the drains on the west side of the airport, then hang a left and take the drains south for about a mile and you will be at the “Exit,” of Hells Gates.

[@Spartan-ts5dy]

This is so disgusting

[@0clu4]

then go help them

[@Spartan-ts5dy]

@@0clu4 these people don't want help..they want handouts ..they want everything handed to them

[@0clu4]

@@Spartan-ts5dy then worry abt yourself

[@Spartan-ts5dy]

@@0clu4 I do........ if they don't want people to give their opinions then don't post on KZbin it's that simple

[@0clu4]

@@Spartan-ts5dy then go argue to the news chanel about it dumbass.. kinda sad how you’re so worried about other peoples lives instead of your own

[@shelbygauthier-owensby4369]

I was in high school and I was suppoto have a rave there and the 1 in old Sacramento but everyone flaked!

[@charleshawk6668]

Wanna be homeless kids 😂 Doing it to be cool

[@thegeezergamer]

No, they weren't wanna be's. I knew most of them

[@stinsonfoster6118]

But, we concentrate on illegals.

[@dreamcatcher_999_]

CHUDS

[@conceptg]

Only Caucasians 🤦🏻‍♂️😂

[@joshuaS7883]

…😁 Meth was primarily a white trash drug in that area at that time. Most of us kids down there were a bi-product of the Meth-scene in the area at that time.

[@User_92020]

So this is el cajon when it use ti be all white people? Lol I live in el cajon today right by the court house, .mostly middle eastern

[@diegoflores9237]

Native americans and Mexicans were here in California before whites

[@rodgerpiercearchitect]

…try criminalizing vagrancy…12 mos co jail w/drug treatment, etc..

[@tommurphy4307]

as long as its on your nickel...

[@rodgerpiercearchitect]

@@tommurphy4307 Tom does it always have to be about money? Where’s the humanity?

[@joshuaS7883]

What we were doing during that time was illegal. And the cops would try to catch us sometimes, and every once in a while they would catch one of us. But we would just go right back down there.

[@nolver53]

I don't feel sorry for them. The "verbal or psychological" abuse many of them claim they endured in the world above is simply not wanting to obey their parents. The typical rebellious teenager. They view their parents as the authority figure that keeps them from doing what they want. You will not get any sympathy from me. Parents are supposed to guide and nurture you. If you don't like it get a job, save your money and move out at 18 and be on your own.

[@pingerboy69]

I'm sure not all there stories are the same... that's silly to think.

[@vmcampos]

sure, karen

[@None-cg4mo]

Wow you sound like you’ve lived a very privileged life.

[@nolver53]

@@None-cg4mo not privileged. Just worked very hard. Parents gave me nothing I couldn't earn on my own. I'm not lazy. I work for everything I have

[@DEWAGE83]

You literally know none of their story other than some nonsense they said to a camera that they knew was gonna be broadcasted on TV. I can't tell if your just deliberately trolling.

[@johndoe5162]

How sad