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3rd climber arrested for scaling New York Times building

STAFF WRITER

8:30 AM EDT, July 9, 2008

A man scaled the side of The New York Times' 52-story headquarters early Wednesday morning, becoming the third person to do so in a span of a few weeks, the police said.

The climber made it to the 11th floor of the building in midtown

Manhattan before descending to a lower floor and spending hours hanging out, making cell phone calls and talking to police before he was arrested about 5:30 a.m., police said.

At one point, the climber hung a white banner with red patches over part of the letter "T" of the word "The" in the company's sign. The banner referenced Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, the Times said on its Web site Wednesday.

The man said he wanted to protest Al-Qaida's "crusader baiting," and to speak out on the terror group's "intentional provocation of the U.S." as the greatest threat to American national security, the Daily News reported on its Web site Wednesday.

The newspaper said it had received a call from the climber during the stunt who identified himself as a 29-year-old college dropout from Connecticut. Police did not immediately confirm those reports.

Dozens of police and firefighters responded about 1:30 a.m. when the man was first spotted climbing the building, police said. Streets were closed off and an inflatable cushion was placed in front of the main entrance of the building.

Two men, including Alain Robert, a 45-year-old French stuntman known for climbing tall buildings, managed to scale the building hours apart on June 5.

Unlike the climber on Wednesday, both men made it to the top before being arrested and were charged with reckless endangerment, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct. Their actions led city officials to call for stronger laws to deter skyscraper shenanigans.

The facade of the newly constructed Times headquarters, which the company moved into only last year, is covered with slats that allowed the men to climb the tower like a ladder.

A spokeswoman for the Times, Catherine Mathis, said modifications were made to the building and additional security was added after the June climbs.

She said the company was investigating how the most recent climber was able to overcome those measures.