{"id":284380,"date":"2026-07-02T00:59:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T00:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/284380\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T00:59:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T00:59:27","slug":"climbers-get-engaged-atop-empire-state-building-then-they-get-arrested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/284380\/","title":{"rendered":"Climbers Get Engaged Atop Empire State Building. Then They Get Arrested."},"content":{"rendered":"

As if the Knicks, the World Cup, Taylor Swift\u2019s possible wedding and the 250th birthday of the nation were not enough, the ceaseless spectacle that is the summer of 2026 in New York City entered the stratosphere, more or less, on Wednesday morning. Two extreme urban climbers illegally ascended the needle of the Empire State Building, where one proposed to the other, 1,450 feet above the city.<\/p>\n

The couple, Angela Nikolau, 33, and Ivan Beerkus, 32, unfurled a large black banner that read \u201cWhen the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace,\u201d and Ms. Nikolau posted a video on Instagram<\/a> that showed a vertiginous view from a terrifyingly tiny platform. Another image posted by Ms. Nikolau shows Mr. Beerkus getting down on one knee<\/a>. In still another, she shows off a ring<\/a>, against a backdrop of high-rises far below.<\/p>\n

Body camera footage posted by the Police Department<\/a> shows what happened next.<\/p>\n

An officer from the Emergency Service Unit climbs a steep, caged-in ladder up toward the couple. \u201cHello, how you doing?\u201d he says. \u201cCan you just stay where you are?\u201d He adds, \u201cYou can\u2019t be up here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Nikolau raises her arms and says, \u201cI\u2019m OK,\u201d as one officer takes her by the arm and another prepares to apprehend Mr. Beerkus.<\/p>\n

Ms. Nikolau and Mr. Beerkus, who live in East Orange, N.J., racked up a litany of charges, including burglary, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and possession of burglar\u2019s tools, the police said late Wednesday.<\/p>\n

It was far from their first ascent. The couple, who are from Russia, were the subjects of a 2024 documentary, \u201cSkywalkers: A Love Story,\u201d about their romance and quest for thrills and fame. (Ms. Nikolau has more than a million Instagram followers.) In 2022, they climbed Merdeka 118<\/a> in Malaysia, which is more than 2,000 feet tall.<\/p>\n

The Empire State Building\u2019s needle, which houses communications equipment and a very tall antenna, rises about 200 feet above the top floor of the building.<\/p>\n

It is a surface that is not frequently scaled. In 1994, the French climber Alain Robert did so, according to the Guinness World Records<\/a> website.<\/p>\n

New York City\u2019s skyscrapers and monuments, however, have long been magnets for climbers.<\/p>\n

Their attempts have ranged from the modest to the truly harrowing.<\/p>\n

In 1918, Harry Gardiner<\/a>, nicknamed \u201cthe Human Fly,\u201d climbed the Soldiers\u2019 and Sailors\u2019 Memorial Arch at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn; it is all of 80 feet high<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Philippe Petit famously walked a tightrope between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.<\/p>\n

In 2008, after three people \u2014 one of whom was Mr. Robert<\/a> \u2014 climbed the New York Times Building<\/a> in a matter of weeks, The Times removed some of the horizontal rods that climbers had used to scale it.<\/p>\n

In 2014, a teenager from New Jersey climbed to the spire<\/a> of the Freedom Tower, which was built on the site of the Twin Towers.<\/p>\n

Jason Barr, an economics professor at Rutgers University who has studied skyscrapers, said that the initial plans for the Empire State Building did not include a spire or antenna, but after the construction of the Chrysler Building, with its distinctive crown, the building was redesigned to include a mooring mast that would stretch into the sky.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese spires are designed partly for aesthetic reasons but also partly for advertising reasons, like \u2018Look at the top of my building\u2019,\u201d Mr. Barr said.<\/p>\n

In recent years, artists and exhibitionists have called their unsecured and usually illegal ascents \u201crooftopping,\u201d documenting the climbs on social media. Aside from structures in New York and Malaysia, Ms. Nikolau and Mr. Beerkus, have ascended buildings and constructions sites in China and Europe, sometimes with legal repercussions.<\/p>\n

Reached by phone on Wednesday, Mr. Petit, now in his late 70s, was unimpressed by the couple\u2019s climb and seemed offended by the idea of being mentioned in the same article.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, how can you compare writing an opera in the sky, and then climbing a very high ladder and unfurling a banner?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

Although Mr. Petit himself brought along confederates to photograph his feat, he decried the current emphasis on creating viral content, rather than timeless art.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all take selfies, and we forget to look, we forget to smell, we forget to hear,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are now, you know, the toys of modern media.\u201d<\/p>\n