An unidentified man scaled Trump Tower in New York City on Wednesday before being apprehended by police.
The man told authorities his name was Steve and he was from Virginia, according to multiple reports.
The climber made it past the 20th level before police were able to safely, but forcefully, pull him into the building. Prior to that, the man reportedly was not obeying police commands.
Numerous windows had to be broken out of Trump Tower by police to reach the man, who scaled the glass facade using suction cups. He had a backpack and used a harness and rope to fasten himself to the 58-story Donald Trump-run skyscraper.
According to a video posted online yesterday of the alleged climber, the man, who was pro-Trump, was doing the stunt because he wanted to have a conversation with the GOP presidential nominee.
The tower is headquarters to Trump’s Republican presidential campaign and his business empire. Trump also lives there, but he was in Virginia in the afternoon and was headed to Florida for an evening event, reported the Associated Press.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But Trump himself took to Twitter on Wednesday night, to thank the NYPD for saving the climber:
Several broadcast networks preempted their regularly scheduled evening news programming Wednesday evening to continue coverage of the Trump Tower climber as he was detained just after 6:30 p.m. ET.
ABC’s World News Tonight, NBC’s Nightly News and CBS’ Evening News delayed their programming to cover the incident, which captivated social media for 2.5 hours on Wednesday.
All three programs aired at 7 p.m. ET in New York instead.
Twitter lit up with the news, and then jokes and memes about the event.
Jared Padalecki, who initially posted about the incident on social media (below), later took to his Facebook page to speak out on the resemblance, which was noted by more than a few fans.
“To clear things up, this is NOT me trying to scale the Trump Tower in NYC. I am safe and sound in Vancouver filming #Supernatural. So please stop asking. ;),” the TV star shared.
To clear things up, this is NOT me trying to scale the Trump Tower in NYC. I am safe and sound in Vancouver filming #Supernatural. So please stop asking. 😉
Posted by Jared Padalecki on Wednesday, August 10, 2016
See the reactions on social media below.
Aug. 10, 3:45 p.m.: This story has been updated with the information that the climber has been taken into custody by police.
7:20 p.m.: Updated with Trump, Padalecki social media posts.
