It’s hard to keep a New Yorker’s eye on something out of the ordinary happening on the street — they’ve seen it all.
Instagram via Erik Ljung
But in a video that has now gone viral, a man left people in awe when he jumped over the window awnings on the roof of a 23-story building in downtown New York City.
The clip, which was shot by Chicago-based film director Eric Ljung, shows the man appearing to be taking a phone call before gracefully jumping over the window canopies before stopping and crawling through a window. The music video then spreads out to show viewers just how massive the tall building is, which makes it all the more gruesome.
But rest assured, this was not a movie stunt on behalf of Ljung.
“I have no idea what that guy was doing. He was already hopping from awning to awning when we first saw him,” Ljung wrote on Instagram along with the clip. “Looks like he called and looked around for about a minute, then he jumped back in the direction he came when we first saw him, then climbed through a window. It was wet and he was wearing dress shoes.”
The building in question is 90 West Street in Manhattan’s financial district, which is over 100 feet high.
And thanks to the power of social media, it seems like the mystery has been solved and the man has done this before too.
The mysterious James Bond figure has been identified as a 60-year-old contractor named Joe Smizaski who works on waterproofing buildings in the city.
His girlfriend’s daughter-in-law, Marissa Fazendeiro, first identified Smizaski and his profession because of Daily mail, joking that he may have been “secretly James Bond too”.
Smizaski then confirmed his identity to NBC 4explaining that rooftop hopping is exactly what he does.
“People have problems with leaks, I’m a problem solver. That’s what I do,” he told the outlet. “I don’t do anything unsafe. I want to go home, to children and family, that’s how I was brought up in the profession.”
Smizaski claimed that the images shown captured a common event for him on the job, stressing that it was just a standard part of his workday.
Videos like this make desk jobs more appealing.
