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Seattle police are searching for two men who parachuted from the Space Needle (apnews.com)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
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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.

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[–] 50 points 3 months ago (5 children)

I can think of better things the police could be doing

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    • [–] 37 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    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.

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    • [–] 65 points 3 months ago (13 children)

    i hate it when trespassers buy tickets.

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  • [–] [S] 34 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (12 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 20 points 3 months ago (11 children)

    "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".

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  • [–] 20 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 months 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.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    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.^

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (2 children)

    The fuck is with all those carets?

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    • [–] 38 points 3 months ago (9 children)

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

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  • [–] [S] 14 points 3 months ago* (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago* (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago* (4 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah but it's over. So what's the point.

    Really the only thing to do is figure out how to stop the next person from doing it.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    That's a wild legal defense. The crime is over officer, you should stop the next guy, not me.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    That's not a legal defense. I don't know why you would think it would be.

    What would you have them do? Sit in jail awhile or something? Not very helpful in the long run.

    The issue is public safety. So you have to consider what to do that detours the next one. Wasting time trying to track them down isn't going to do that.

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    • [–] 14 points 3 months ago

    All they have to do is wait. They’ll come down eventually.

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    [–] 14 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    Check for whoever played the Rivoli that night.

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    • [+] 5 points 3 months ago (3 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    The ones I've worn look like this:

    That's not a skydiving chute, it's an emergency escape chute, worn by aerobatic and test pilots in case they need to walk back to the airport. I'll never forget the first time I wore one, it was during spin lessons during instructor training. In shockingly few words this guy explained to me how to fly and land the tightly folded aircraft strapped to my back. The large silver handle here on this shoulder strap, pull it all the way out to deploy, look up, grab the loops, pull them down to your ears, pull left to go left pull right to go right, as you come in to land pull all the way down. I asked "Okay, how do you deploy the reserve chute?" He said "That IS the reserve chute. Plan A is landing the plane."

    You wouldn't mistake it for a school backpack. It's not something you could easily hide under clothing without looking really strange.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    There’s not that much security there so even if staff noticed depending on how things went there wouldn’t have been much time to seriously react to the “threat” but also, who cares? They didn’t hurt anyone

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    • [–] 5 points 3 months ago

    Now we wait for the jumpers' GoPro footage to be posted.

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    [–] 5 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie obviously.

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    • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    Oh no! Trespassing!

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    [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    So they can give them high-fives?

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    [–] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    Don't they have anything better to do?

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    • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    Just Do It...

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