Aw chute!
A quartet of daredevil parachutists planning on taking a dive from atop a tower at Co-op City wound up grounded instead, and under arrest.
Before they had a chance to pull their ripcords, Co-op City Public Safety officers were pulling out their handcuffs.
The four were literally on the roof edge of the 33-story building when the officers ordered them to halt, said Public Safety Chief Frank Apollo.
“We’re not violent people!” he quoted a member of the shouting as they raised their arms in surrender while the officers moved in.
Off-duty Public Safety Sgt. Carl Wright and Detective Gary Adams who had just finished their shift spotted three men shortly after midnight, Dec. 4 near Bellamy Loop and Benchly Place in the sprawling complex.
On jumper alert
Already on alert to reports that jumpers may have twice jumped in recent months from towering buildings there, local officers were on extra alert.
When Wright and Adams saw the trio were wearing rather large “back packs,” their antenna really went up, said Apollo, and the cops began following them.
The two officers then noticed a woman by the entrance to Building 24 slipping in as someone opened the door to leave. They then saw her opening a rear door and letting the three men in.
The two officers called for backup, and after taking the elevator to the roof spotted the four ready to jump and placed thyem under arrest.
If they had jumped, they would have been met on the ground with a welcoming committee of other public safety officers, alerted by the two cops.
Apollo said the jumpers came prepared for a fast exit once they landed, with a key in the igntion and the doors unlocked to their getaway car.
A review of security video, he added, showed the same crew entering the same building – for a potential jump – a few days before Thanksgiving.
Arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court, James Brady, 31, of Suffolk County, James Ferucci, 29, of Brooklyn, Andrew Rossig, 32, of Orange County, and Katherine Donohue, 31, of Brooklyn, were all charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing and released for a later court hearing.
