As reported on The Verge.
By Rich McCormick
A group of men who BASE jumped from the top of the 1,776-foot tower at 1 World Trade Center last September turned themselves in to police on Monday. The men — three of whom parachuted from the building, while a fourth kept watch — questioned the level of security in and around the tower. Andrew Rossig, one of the men who was involved with the stunt, said “we just kind of walked in.”
Timothy Parlatore, one of Rossig’s lawyers, told The New York Times that the group had not seen any security guards during their 3 AM climb to the roof of the 104-floor building. The men were able to evade capture on the night of their stunt, despite being spotted stuffing their parachutes away by a Goldman Sachs security guard when they were safely back on the ground. Police took until January to identify them, when they were able to obtain search warrants for their camera equipment, and found footage of the incredible jump.
Last week, another incident called the tower’s security into question, when 16-year-old Justin Casquejo was able to sneak through a fence, ride the tower’s elevator to the 88th floor, and climb the spire on its roof. Casquejo says he made his way past a sleeping security guard and spent two hours on top of the tower, before being spotted on his descent. He was arrested in the tower’s lobby two hours later.
The BASE jumpers are expected to be charged with trespassing and burglary. Officials with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey say that one of the jumpers was able to access the site because he worked for a construction company used on site, but the man’s lawyers say the Port Authority is lying to avoid blame, and that the group entered through a hole in a fence. Rossig expressed worries about the apparently lax security before handing himself in to police. “It’s supposed to be the most secure building in the world. God forbid it was somebody else getting in there with a real intention to harm New Yorkers.”