The Seattle Police Department is searching for two men who climbed over the glass wall of the city’s iconic Space Needle on Friday, flipped over the edge and parachuted down from the 605-foot structure.

The jumpers face trespassing charges, according to a report provided by Public Affairs Officer Brian Pritchard.

The BASE jumpers purchased tickets and entered the Space Needle at about 8:50 p.m. Friday, according to the Seattle Police Department. The popular attraction has a round observation deck surrounded by high glass windows that are open to the sky above.

They were seen on camera at the top level of the Needle then went into a restroom, coming out with helmets on, according to police.

They ran to the glass window, climbed over to the other side, and jumped off, according to police.

  • ReverendIrreverence@piefed.social
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    8 hours ago

    Another unbalanced and inordinate waste of taxpayer dollars. Spending 10’s of thousands of dollars to try and write 2 trespassing tickets is fucking stupid. They did it. They got away. They didn’t hurt themselves or anyone else. Now go have some donuts and shut the fuck up piggies.

  • TrackinDaKraken
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    11 hours ago

    They won’t let it go because it was a public display. It’s not about safety, it’s about exerting control.

    • FlashMobOfOneOP
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      11 hours ago

      In part, yes.

      Still, I can understand why it’s necessary to dissuade others from trying. These sorts of stunts can fail and cause problems for other people, after all. (Particularly in an urban environment.)

      But if someone wants to jump off the side of a mountain and maybe get only themselves killed, I’m all for it. Have fun out there.

      • WoodScientist
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        9 hours ago

        But if someone wants to jump off the side of a mountain and maybe get only themselves killed, I’m all for it. Have fun out there.

        I find your lack of concern for the life of Sasquatch deeply offensive. 🤣

        OTOH, us scientifically proving Bigfoot is real because a BASE jumper leapt off a mountain, had their parachute fail, and just happened to land on a Sasquatch, killing them both? That would be one Hell of a timeline. Though really, wouldn’t such an absurd thing be just perfect? Certainly better than someone just finding a dead one randomly one day.

    • Warl0k3
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      8 hours ago

      I mean, yes - fuck SPD - but at the same time this is wildly reckless and should absolutely be punished. The area under the space needle is an extremely high traffic area; if this had gone wrong they could have so easily killed people.

    • SpaceNoodle
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      11 hours ago

      It’s Seattle cops, we should be grateful they’re doing anything

      • lol_idk@piefed.social
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        11 hours ago

        Well I think doing nothing is better than most of what they do. Just doing nothing night not hurt anyone

    • FlashMobOfOneOP
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      13 hours ago

      On that we agree.

      I understand in concept why it’s important to go after base jumpers, but there’s almost certainly bigger fish to fry. Police are fucking lazy.

      • loutr@sh.itjust.works
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        7 hours ago

        They say they’re searching but I bet they’re not doing shit. Nobody got hurt and, as you say, they’re fucking lazy.

    • FlashMobOfOneOP
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      13 hours ago

      Not a lawyer, but I’m guessing the trespassing applies when they opted to enter restricted areas of the facility, or maybe the air around it.

      • Courtney (she/her/they) @lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        13 hours ago

        “I had no way of knowing I wasn’t permitted to climb over the glass, there was no sign and nobody told us not to” is a perfectly valid defence, IMO. Whether it “should be common sense” or not is irrelevant.

        You can’t claim someone has trespassed when all they did was just choose an alternate route back to ground level, much less an alternate route that did not say “don’t take this route”.

        • doughless
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          12 hours ago

          Courts frequently use the standard of whether a “reasonable person would have known” something. They might try to play dumb, but it almost definitely wouldn’t work as a defense. Trespassing laws don’t require signage, a clear structural barrier is enough.

          • SillyDude@lemmy.zip
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            12 hours ago

            This is state by state. Where I live singage is explicitly required. Every 50ft.

            Private property can trespass anyone at anytime for any reason though. That applies everywhere. Trying to get them for criminal trespass is a waste of time. What the police would like to know is exactly who they are and to trespass them from there, in just to get their records going.

            • doughless
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              11 hours ago

              Yes, laws do vary by state, but those signage laws typically apply to open land, not internal buildings/structures. A store doesn’t need signage to prevent you from hopping over the counter to where the register is.

            • Warl0k3
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              8 hours ago

              But you do not need them on your house, even if you have your windows open.

        • piskertariot
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          13 hours ago

          They took the same route they would have, had the building not been there.

        • ccunning
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          11 hours ago

          My understanding is, you aren’t “trespassing” in publicly accessible areas, until you’ve been told to leave and refused*

          *Of course it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but generally in the U.S.

            • Warl0k3
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              8 hours ago

              Your client isn’t rendering the markdown correctly, carets are how you make superscript (or smaller) text.

        • thermal_shock
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          17 minutes ago

          I agree. Best they can do is say “don’t so it again, you’re not allowed here anymore”. No signage or prior warnings means no charges.

      • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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        7 hours ago

        Shame it’s at the bottom. That movie was my number 1 last year, and that’s as someone who never heard of them prior.