Despite a kiss for the camera and a grinning mug shot, one of the men arrested late Tuesday for BASE jumping from a Union Square hotel says they don't want any attention for the high-profile act.
You remember this one, I'm sure: According to the San Francisco Police Department, two men and a woman leapt from the top of the Hilton San Francisco Union Square Hotel, which is located at 333 Ellis Streetm late Tuesday evening. The trio parachuted down to the 300 block of Jones Street, about a block from SFPD's Tenderloin Station. Police nabbed two male suspects in the case, booking them for trespassing and conspiracy — while there's no law prohibiting BASE jumping in SF, they weren't guests at the Hilton and were in a private area, hence the trespassing rap. The female suspect, police say, evaded capture and remains at large.
Wednesday evening, the SFPD released booking photos of the suspects, which you can see above. One the left you see 26-year-old Joshua Glovac, who SFPD spokesperson Officer Grace Gatpandan says lives in South San Francisco. On the right you see 23-year-old Brendan Weinstein, who lives in SF.
According to NBC Bay Area, "both men's Facebook pages are filled with videos of various base jumps and skydives. Weinstein's LinkedIn page indicates that he is also an engineering manager at VSCO, a photography app, while Glovac's says he is a senior repair engineer at United Airlines."
KTVU reports that the suspects were wearing "Go Pro helmet cameras, which were confiscated when the the two were arrested," suggesting that the footage from Tuesday's caper would be added to their alleged Facebook video portfolios. But according to Weinstein, who ABC 7 says spoke with them briefly following his release Wednesday afternoon, "he was not jumping for attention."
The released man, who you first see blowing a kiss to cameras when he was led into the police station, and later speaking with an ABC 7 reporter, says he had been detained for 9 hours by police, and "did not want to be identified." He also said, according to ABC 7, that an "interview with the media would put him at risk" and that "he does not agree with what police are accusing him of."
"When asked why he was shying away from attention after pulling off such a public stunt," ABC 7 reports, "he said if he had wanted attention, he would not have done it at 1 a.m."
SFPD spokesperson Officer Giselle Talkoff, who earlier noted that the jump actually took place at 11:35 p.m., disagrees with the suspect's disagreement.
"For one, they did commit a crime — they were trespassing on property that they did not belong at," she told NBC Bay Area. "Two, they conspired together to commit this. It is against the law to do that and it is a dangerous thing to do."
Previously: Parachuters Jump Off Union Square Hotel, Are Promptly Arrested