A New Jersey teenager apparently obsessed with 1 World Trade Center managed to bypass security and sneak onto the roof of the tower early Sunday for an epic photo session, the New York Post reported.
The Post obtained court papers in which a 16-year-old from nearby Weehawken, N.J., told police he simply walked around the construction site and figured out how to access the tower’s rooftop. He bragged to cops about breezing past the building’s security, which was supposed to be a “ring of steel,” according to the Post. (TPM is not naming the teen because he’s a juvenile.)
He allegedly crawled through a hole in the fence at Ground Zero around 4 a.m. Sunday, according to the Post, and got a lift to the 88th floor of the building from an elevator operator who didn’t question his lack of ID. He then climbed from there to the 104th floor, where a guard assigned to protect the roof was asleep.
The Post reported that guard has since been fired while the elevator operator was reassigned.
The boy was ultimately caught by a construction worker while making his way back down the tower after spending two hours at the spire, according to the newspaper, and now faces a misdemeanor charge of trespassing. Whether he got to keep and post any photos he snapped at the top of 1 WTC is unclear.
This post has been updated.
