A man who claimed to be a researcher seeking “a private audience” with Donald Trump spent three hours scaling the glass facade of Trump Tower using large suction cups before officers hauled him to safety through an open window.
The climber wore a backpack and used a harness and rope stirrups to fasten himself to the side of the 68-story Manhattan skyscraper on Wednesday. He climbed as high as the 21st floor before officers grabbed him.
Police identified him as a 20-year-old Virginia man and said he was taken to a hospital for evaluation.
The tower is headquarters to Donald Trump’s Republican presidential campaign and his business empire. Trump also lives there, though he was in Virginia in the afternoon and was headed to Florida for an evening event.
The man played a slow-motion cat-and-mouse game with his would-be rescuers as he climbed Trump Tower. Officers smashed windows and broke through ventilation ducts to block his progress. Police also lowered themselves toward the man using a window washer’s platform.
The climber kept his distance by methodically working his way back and forth across the facade, repeatedly repositioning suction cups resembling a type commonly used by window washers to remove big panes of glass.
The chase ended dramatically just after 6:30 p.m.