A Florida man climbed a cell phone tower on Wednesday in Miami and disconnected power running to it.
On Wednesday, the Miami Police Department issued a traffic advisory on X, formerly Twitter, saying: "NW 29 Street is closed from NW 12 Avenues to NW 14 Avenue due to a man who has climbed on a cellular phone tower."
A live video captured by local news station WSVN-TV showed the man climbing up the tower with first responders nearby. In the video, the man can be seen nearly reaching the top of the tower.
The man posed as a T-Mobile worker and was able to bypass other employees to climb the tower, according to WSVN-TV. The outlet also reported that the man was seen disconnecting power from the tower by unhooking certain lines.
A police report provided to Newsweek on Thursday identified the man as Richard Smith.
Miami police spokesperson Officer Michael Vega told the Miami Herald that the man was also seen disconnecting other portions of the tower and attempting to throw them down to the ground. Vega said that officers were closing down some streets in the area while they worked to bring the man down and negotiate with him.
Vega also confirmed to the Miami Herald that the tower's power was shut down at around 1 a.m. local time. When a T-Mobile worker arrived at the tower, they noticed that the power was manually shut off and shortly after arriving, the worker noticed the man climbing the tower.
According to WTVJ in Miami, the man climbing the tower said, "No, I'm not done working yet," when first responders told him to come down.
The police report provided to Newsweek stated that the individual eventually climbed down from the tower and was taken into custody and transported to Miami Police Headquarter "for further questioning."
"According to the representatives of AT&T, T-Mobile and Crown Castle which were on scene at the time of the incident, defendant caused an amount between $100,000 to $500,000 dollars in damages and caused a wide range of cellular outage for customers until damages can be fixed and services restored," the police report said.
The man was hit with charges including criminal mischief and burglary/unoccupied structure.
T-Mobile also issued a statement to Newsweek following the incident, saying, "After our systems alerted us that there was a service issue at this site, which we and other providers lease from a vendor, our field technician responded, determined that there was an unauthorized entry, and called local authorities.
"We are grateful to the Miami Police Department and Miami Fire Rescue for their response and will continue to support their investigation. Fortunately, everyone is safe and overlapping coverage in the area will continue to ensure customers remain connected."
The man climbing the tower also said "good morning" when the T-Mobile worker arrived on scene, WTVJ reported.
While speaking with WSVN-TV, a Miami police officer said: "Those gray boxes that you see up on the tower, they are actually very hot."
"So he knows what he's doing because he's avoiding touching those boxes. We're just trying to talk him down to come down peacefully and once he does come down, he's facing a lieu of charges," the officer told the local news outlet.
Police believe that some cell phone services may be impacted by the man's actions on the tower, WSVN-TV reported.
Last month, a man was arrested by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office after he was seen climbing a cellular tower in Riverview, Florida, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
Update 4/3/24, 11:23 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with further information.
Update 4/4/24, 8:29 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with further information.
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