Two masked climbers staged a rooftop proposal atop the Empire State Building Wednesday before police took them into custody.
By midday, the NYPD Emergency Services Unit was responding to the landmark after the pair surfaced near the spire with a peace-themed banner reading, “when the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace.”
The quote has long been associated with Jimi Hendrix, but its roots are tied instead to William Gladstone, the 19th-century British politician.
The climbers later identified themselves on social media as Netflix daredevils Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, who have built a following around high-risk urban climbing.
The stunt shifted from protest-style spectacle to romance once the banner came down and the pair moved off the antenna.
The climb turned into a proposal when Beerkus produced a ring from his backpack and knelt on the platform.
Nikolau accepted and descended with the new ring still on her hand. The romantic stunt still ended in cuffs.
Fox News received confirmation from NYPD officials that the pair had been taken into custody, while possible charges remained pending and no injuries were reported.
🪖Discover what it takes to turn defeat into victory in this FREE eBook on history’s “savior generals” 🪖 Learn how exceptional leadership can change the course of war!➡️➡️➡️ Download your FREE copy NOW!!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Down on Fifth Avenue, the stunt triggered a heavy police presence that shut the entrance between West 33rd and 34th streets and forced traffic control around the landmark.
The police response turned the surrounding corners into viewing spots as pedestrians stopped to watch.
The arrest was later shown from the officers’ perspective in NYPD body-camera footage from the antenna.
The body-camera audio captured one officer saying, “Hey I got eyes on ‘em.”
“How you doing? You can’t be up here!” the officer called out. Nikolau answered, “I’m okay.”
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch framed the clip as “A glimpse into the work of our Emergency Services Unit.”
The building’s response stressed two points: the climb was “unauthorized,” and the public was never in danger.
The spokesperson emphasized, “There was at no time danger to tenants, visitors, and Empire State Building Observation Deck guests. It is to be emphasized that the Empire State Building Observation Deck, atop the World’s Most Famous Building in the center of New York City, does offer a practical way for the most memorable marriage proposals.”
Surveillance footage is now part of the NYPD review into the route the climbers allegedly used.
Investigators were looking at whether the pair studied employee routines before reaching the spire through a 102nd-floor maintenance hatch, possibly after breaking a lock.
CBS News New York carried one witness account placing the pair at an observation-deck gate before the climb.
Their Netflix profile came through “Skywalkers: A Love Story,” which followed the pair’s climb of Malaysia’s 2,227-foot Merdeka 118 Tower.
Their own photos turned the stunt into social-media spectacle, with the proposal and ring framed against the Manhattan skyline.
The high-altitude arrest followed a run of other New York City daredevil cases involving bridges, towers and restricted landmarks.
One prior stunt ended in Calvert Vaux Park after a BASE jumper came down from the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
On a Sunday last November, 911 calls began coming in from the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge between Brooklyn and Staten Island.
Police identified the parachutist as Jonathan Warren, 40, after the landing in Coney Island’s Calvert Vaux Park.
Warren, who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, received a reckless-endangerment charge and a desk appearance ticket in what police described as his first New York City arrest.
The Brooklyn Bridge had its own cable-climbing scare in October.
Police later named the climber as Mark Orilall, 18, of Somerset, New Jersey.
Officers caught up with him before the bridge stunt escalated further.
His arrest ended without injuries, with charges including reckless endangerment, obstruction of government administration and criminal trespass.
Another stunt played out on the Roosevelt Island tramway, where a masked climber forced a high-angle police response on the Manhattan-side tower.
The Roosevelt Island case centered on Miguel Martinez, 20, of Oceanside, Long Island, after footage showed him moving from the tower gangway onto ladders and then out to a narrow I-beam.
New Yorkers who saw the climb called 911, drawing a specialized police response to the tower.
Martinez was eventually secured by responders and taken off the tower without injury.
After a hospital evaluation at Weill-Cornell Medical Center, Martinez faced reckless endangerment, obstruction of governmental administration and criminal trespass charges.
Police found no indication that the climb was connected to a protest or cause.
The Empire State Building had already been central to another trespass case involving urban explorer photographer Isaac Wright, known as “Drift.”
Wright’s arrest came during his “Coming Home” opening at Robert Mann Gallery in Chelsea, where four NYPD officers removed him from the event while he was dressed in a tuxedo and black bow tie.
NEWS: NYPD officers reportedly arrested @DrifterShoots at the opening of his solo show in Chelsea tonight
This is a developing story and we will update it with more detailspic.twitter.com/l1AV0xukQg
— Now Media (@nowmedia) May 16, 2025
Investigators tied the case to Wright’s own Empire State Building image, allegedly shot from the spire in 2024.
The New York Times account traced the alleged climb from a tourist elevator to the 102nd floor, past security cameras and a locked gate, and up to the red beacon light roughly 1,250 feet above the street.
The NYPD confirmation to The New York Times identified the charge as third-degree criminal trespass, a class B misdemeanor under New York law.
