Authorities say a 28-year-old Laguna Niguel man is the lunatic responsible for a series of first-person videos showing death defying jumps from balconies, cliffs, and rooftops into pools or shallow ocean water below.
In the last few months, the videos of the nerve-wracking jumps were posted to YouTube.
And while the jumper survived the landings, his stunts are probably coming to an end.
The Orange County District Attorney's office said today that Anthony Booth Armer was arrested and charged with two counts of unauthorized entry of a dwelling and one count of trespassing with intent to interfere with business. Neither are felony offenses, but the prosecutors made it clear they're taking this matter very seriously, so we’ll give you a quick timeline on what the say went down.
July 21, 2016: Armer makes one of his first documented leaps. Video from the event shows him clearly trespassing on private property, climbing first onto the balcony of a home near Table Rock Beach, then onto the roof to make his eventual descent into the Pacific. When the video goes viral, Laguna Beach police investigate; the homeowner confirms that "Armer did not have permission to access their property."
Sept. 29, 2016: Though not a guest at the hotel, Armer climbs a wall and uses employees-only areas to access the fifth floor, from which he jumps into the gated pool below. Hotel staff, suspicious about the sudden appearance of a fully dressed, bandana-wearing man in the pool, notify the authorities.
On Oct. 6, 2016: "At approximately 9:00 a.m.," an increasingly bold Armer enters a Newport Beach residential building known as Newport Towers. After running up the stairwell, he plunges from the roof into the harbor, narrowly evading a dock and several boats.
October 26, 2016: The jig is up. Laguna Beach police place Armer under arrest "at approximately 7:45 a.m." Deputy District Attorney Nathaniel Barrett of the Harbor Justice Center is assigned to the case.
Crimes of the century? We’ll let you decide. In the meantime, Orange County officials want anyone else who believes they have been a victim of Youtube stunt-related trespassing to contact their local authorities.
- Mapped: The Awesomest and Douchiest Pools in Los Angeles [Curbed LA]
- Laguna Beach in Focus [Curbed LA]
- Newport Beach Feels the Need to Ban Jetpacks Apparently [Curbed LA]
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