{"id":126335,"date":"2026-02-28T23:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T23:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/126335\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T23:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T23:03:07","slug":"man-who-scaled-gulf-tower-in-pittsburgh-charged-with-criminal-trespass-arrest-warrant-issued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/126335\/","title":{"rendered":"Man who scaled Gulf Tower in Pittsburgh charged with criminal trespass, arrest warrant issued"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ca0de441af9b91e6fb8aa422a58fd357.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A man who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/news\/local\/man-briefly-held-by-police-gulf-tower-pittsburgh-day-after-he-appeared-scale-building\/QW3RQLJTPREKRDNQJTIWSUGV3I\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:scaled the Gulf Tower;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">scaled the Gulf Tower<\/a> in Downtown Pittsburgh has now been criminally charged.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Channel 11 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/news\/local\/if-one-slip-happens-thats-it-man-who-climbed-gulf-tower-pittsburgh-speaks-with-channel-11\/EH52YIRXPZAONFJGVPFQIHYLVY\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:spoke exclusively with Austin Seik;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">spoke exclusively with Austin Seik<\/a> after police took him into custody and then released him Friday at the Gulf Tower. The day before, he\u2019d climbed to the tower\u2019s peak and posted videos of it on social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But on Saturday, Pittsburgh Bureau of Police announced that Downtown Public Safety Center officers had obtained arrest warrants for Seik and a woman, alleging they \u201cgained illegal access\u201d to the tower.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Seik, 27, of Hookstown, and Mariah Lynn Barnes, 33, of Munhall, are charged with criminal trespass, police say.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Only cameras were rolling as Seik and Barnes were put in handcuffs and led to a police cruiser Friday outside the Gulf Tower.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A Pittsburgh Public Safety spokesperson later told us the pair had been released after being \u201ccooperative and provided full statements to police.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">During our exclusive talk with Seik, he told us he believes he is \u201cdone\u201d with climbing after this incident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">After he climbed it on Thursday, Seik and Barnes reportedly went back to the Gulf Tower on Friday to retrieve a jacket that they\u2019d left. That\u2019s when building employees recognized Seik and stalled him until police arrived.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:FREE WPXI News app;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Twitter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Watch WPXI NOW;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who scaled the Gulf Tower in Downtown Pittsburgh has now been criminally charged. Channel 11 spoke&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59018,1910,4623,58720,58713,59017,73,7748,75,74,23867],"class_list":["post-126335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-arrest-warrants","tag-criminal-trespass","tag-downtown-pittsburgh","tag-downtown-public-safety-center","tag-gulf-tower","tag-mariah-lynn-barnes","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-bureau-of-police","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-police-cruiser"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}