The Trump Tower Climber Didn't Reach The Top

In a pretty epic display of carelessness, a man was apprehended by police after attempting to scale a skyscraper in downtown Manhattan. The building in question? Why, it was none other than Trump Tower, the headquarters of the Trump Organization. So, what floor did the Trump Tower climber reach? He made it a third of the way up before law enforcement had to take some pretty drastic action.

The intrepid, but ill-advised, climber was filmed making his way up Trump Tower for the better part of three hours, as a crowd of curious onlookers gathered below. While street entertainers are a normal part of pretty much every big city ecosystem, this whole spectacle was definitely not something that you'd find in the guidebooks.

Despite not wearing any safety gear, the young man was able to make it up to the 21st floor of Trump Tower. But that was when things actually got a bit more dicey. Law enforcement officials ended up having to open a plate glass window to haul the unconventional climber to safety after repeated attempts to get him to abandon his task were for naught.

Retired NYPD Sgt. Joseph Giacalone told CBS 2 New York that no matter what the climber was trying to accomplish, the chaos surrounding his climb probably didn't do a lot to endear him to the locals. “His cause is going to be pretty much lost because he made a lot of people angry today on their commute home,” Giacalone said.

According to a reporter on the ground from AFP, law enforcement ended up closing down the entire block between Fifth and Madison Avenues. The incident started just after 4 p.m. ET, smack dab in the middle of rush hour, meaning that while he wasn't moving very fast, he was still probably moving faster than the hundreds of thousands of commuters just trying to go about their day.

However, at the end of the day, this incident may end up going down in history as the impetus behind the most rational, reasoned press release out of the Trump outfit since the beginning of the election cycle. Speaking on behalf of the Trump Organization, an executive said: "This man performed a ridiculous and dangerous stunt. There’s damage to the building and he caused the unnecessary deployment of New York’s finest to protect his safety and the safety of everyone in the building."

Truer words, et cetera.