It’s the dawn of a new year, and with that comes New Year’s Resolutions. One of the most common resolutions out there has got to be “take more risks”, but after seeing this stunt, we have to say… we’re good with taking our current amount of risks (a.k.a. little to none).
On Monday morning, five “rooftoppers” were caught climbing up Hong Kong’s iconic Tsing Ma Bridge, sans safety equipment. The trespassers, three men and two women aged between 21 and 27, were spotted sitting on top of the 206-metre-high bridge and taking photos at around 7am, Oriental Daily reports. After spotting the daredevils on security footage, Tsing Ma Control Area staff called the police.
The group had reportedly walked along the main steel cables of the bridge to reach the top of the bridge tower, and climbed down before police arrived. They later insisted that they only wanted to take pictures on the tower and didn’t know it was off-limits.
At least one person from the group, a 21-year-old tourist surnamed Escobedo, appears to be a seasoned rooftopper, having posted multiple photos from other dizzyingly high vantage points around the world on his Instagram page. (And we have trouble believing he “didn’t know” any of those other spots were out of bounds, but whatever.)
Under the Tsing Ma Control Area Ordinance, any person found inside any building or facility in the Control Area without permission could face a fine of up to HKD5,000 and a jail term of up to six months upon conviction. As their act involved no criminal elements and no damage to property was found, police released the five adventurers after obtaining information of their identities.
Photos of a masked man, believed to be one of the people involved in the incident, sitting on top of Tsing Ma Bridge with his hand on one of the main steel cables, were uploaded onto social media later that day, according to The Standard. It seems the risk-taking rooftoppers aren’t particularly fazed by the media attention (or threat of prosecution), however, seeing as Escobedo called the incident “an epic start to 2017” on his personal Instagram account.
Believe it or not, this isn’t the first group to scale the bridge. Selfies from the top of Tsing Ma Bridge do appear from time to time on the internet, although we can’t say we understand the appeal.
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