A vertigo-inducing video shows a daredevil braving a rainstorm at night to walk along the ledge of the 50th floor of an abandoned $1 billion skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles that has become a major draw for graffiti taggers.
The footage, published Tuesday by the Instagram channel GRAFFTV shows the thrill-seeker, identified by the moniker “73ER P.E.C,” making his way around a steel beam and stepping onto the building’s outside ledge with no safety harness in sight as rain douses the city.
Red and blue graffiti could be seen on the building’s wall as the urban climber, dressed in a maroon hoodie and jeans, cautiously makes his way across the façade of the skyscraper, before turning the corner and vanishing from view.
According to an accompanying post by GRAFFTV, which bills itself as “The Leading Source of Los Angeles Graffiti Culture,” the video was taken on the 50th floor of the towering Oceanwide Plaza complex.
“As he tightroped between skyscrapers, a heavy thunderstorm unleashed its fury, drenching him in torrential rain,” the author of the caption breathlessly described. “This daring feat transformed the high-rise building into a surreal, but dangerous playground for the acrobatic street killer.”
As of Wednesday, the video of the tagger’s gravity-defying antics has been viewed more than 350,000 times. It was not apparent from the footage who recorded it, or when.
At least a half-dozen people have been arrested since last week for trespassing on the abandoned property overlooking the Crypto.com area, home to the LA Lakers, Clippers and Kings.
Taggers have been flocking to downtown Los Angeles from far and wide to leave their mark on the vacant skyscrapers.
The three-building Oceanwide Plaza property had been conceived as a $1 billion mixed-use luxury apartment and commercial hub, but construction on the project came to a halt in 2019, when the developers ran out of money.
The skyscrapers had sat unfinished for the past five years, before graffiti taggers took an interest in them.
Tags have been painted on at last 27 balconies at the buildings, according to videos that have been circulating online.
Street artists pointed a finger of blamed at the developers of the stalled project, the Beijing-based Oceanwide Holdings.
“With all due respect, s–t is abandoned, doing nothing,” a tagger known as Hopes told the station KTLA. “Let’s put some color on this b—h and do what we do if they ain’t gon’ finish the job.”
The Los Angeles Police Department wrote on X late last month that officers, representatives of the property management company and city officials had met to discuss adding security measures at the dormant construction site.
“The measures will be implemented immediately and the graffiti will be removed,” the LAPD pledged on Jan. 31.