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Ready for a good laugh at the expense of another human being? Of course you are! Today’s subject of our amusement is 20-year-old Mason Barth from Wisconsin who thought it would be cool to BASE jump from a cell tower. (BASE jumping is parachuting from a fixed structure. The letters stand for “Building, Antenna, Span, and Earth” for the uninitiated.)
Barth decided to go the Antenna route and BASE jumped from a 300-foot Charter and AT&T Communications cell tower in Menomonie, Wisconsin last week. It did not end well for him.
At around 8:37 a.m. last Thursday, a call was placed to the 911 operator about a man hanging by a parachute some 50 feet above the ground from the guy wires of the aforementioned cell tower.
The call was placed by Barth.
BONUS! His call to 911 was preserved for posterity (and chuckles). Have a listen…
According to WCCO-CBS, authorities had to use a “cherry picker” to free Barth from the wires, leaving him hanging there for about an hour after his call.
After being taken to and released from a local hospital for evaluation, police charged Barth with felony criminal trespass on energy provider property.
Barth reportedly denied seeing the “no trespassing” sign at the gate, but did admit he saw one once he was inside the fencing surrounding the tower, reports WEAU-NBC.
“I’d just like to say thanks to everybody who was there and helped me,” said Barth after the incident in which he claimed his parachute “deployed incorrectly.”
“Without them, you know, I might not be here today,” he added.
Barth was released from jail on a $1,000 signature bond with a scheduled court date of Dec. 10. He faces up to six years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine if convicted.
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