Cops Rush to Aid Empire State “Jumper,” Turns Out He’s a Statue
NYers trained to “say something” if they “see something” — just not in this case By JENNIFER MILLMAN
They warned us this would happen.
Police raced to the Empire State Building yesterday after a frightened 911 caller saw what appeared to be a person poised on the ledge, preparing to jump, according to a published report.
Once they arrived, they realized the possible jumper was only a statue – one of the cast-iron life-size figures modeled in the form of an artist whose “Event Horizon” exhibit has sparked a flurry of 911 calls from passersby who mistake the statues, many of which are posed on precarious ledges and roofs around Manhattan, for possible suicide risks.
The presence of the statues dumbfounds some workers and tourists, particularly at the Empire State Building, from which half a dozen people have plunged to their deaths over the last 10 years. Just last month, a Yale grad student became the latest to leap to his demise from the observation deck.