They came down from a dizzying height.
The dingbat daredevils who got engaged atop the Empire State Building’s antenna were sprung Thursday after getting hit with a slew of charges for the cringe Instagram stunt.
A black catsuit-clad Angela Nikolau, 33, and her beau Ivan Kuznetsov, 32, beamed as clasped hands as they walked free from their arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court – nearly a day after he dropped on one knee more than 1,000 feet in the air.
“It’s the most powerful power: love,” Kuznetsov intoned in a thick Russian accent, shortly before playing serious tonsil hockey with Nikolau on the Chambers Street subway station’s steps.
“We believe in love.”
Nikolau didn’t wear her engagement ring that she flaunted on Instagram moments before NYPD cops also scaled the spire and arrested the perpetually posting pair Wednesday. The ring remained in a police station, Kuznetsov said as they navigated a swarm of reporters.
The exhibitionist lovebirds’ shameless smooching contrasted with their clear nervousness in court, where they were arraigned on charges that could send them to prison for up to seven years, if convicted.
The charges are also not eligible for bail under New York law, meaning the pair couldn’t be held behind bars ahead of their next court date Aug. 24.
But prosecutors did successfully request the thrillseekers be put on supervised release owing to the dangerousness of their foolish feat.
The alleged break-in caused $2,000 worth of damage and required the Empire State Building’s broadcast antenna to be powered down in order to prevent police rescuers from being exposed to dangerous high-frequency radio signals, prosecutors contended.
The duo are believed to have bought tickets at the Empire State Building Tuesday at around 9 p.m., before hiding at the Midtown landmark overnight, law-enforcement sources said.
Video showed them emerging from a hatch on the 102nd floor at roughly 5 a.m. the next day, the sources said.
Kuznetsov then used tools to loosen brackets for metal cables stretching across a stairwell, which they then allegedly entered, according to the sources.
What happened next was captured on numerous cameras, including the pair’s own – they scrambled up the building’s 1,454-foot-high antenna and unfurled a banner.
“When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace,” was the banner’s utterly cliché message.
After climbing down to a platform, Kuznetsov – who goes by Ivan “Vanya” Beerkus on social media – dropped to one knee and proposed to Nikolau as she still wore a black cat mask.
The happy couple received King Kong-levels of attention – even after NYPD officers likewise braved the heights and arrested them.
Powering down the antenna so NYPD Emergency Service Unit members could safely wrangle the devil-may-care couple took roughly 30 minutes, a criminal complaint revealed.
The pair were hit with burglary, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief charges, all felonies, in addition to misdemeanor counts of possession of burglary tools, trespass and criminal tampering.
Their defense attorney, Jason Krinsky, argued prosecutors overcharged and contended there was no evidence of burglary tools.
“Even the building’s own people, the Empire State’s own people, said there was no risk to tenants, guests on the observation deck or anyone in the building,” the lawyer claimed.
“It was a message of love,” he said. “She didn’t say ‘no.’ So you gotta give him that.”
Nikolau and Kuznetsov – who originally hail from Moscow, Russia, and now reside in East Orange, New Jersey – are no strangers to extreme climbing adventures.
Together, they’ve climbed Bay Bridge in San Francisco, the world’s second-tallest building – Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur – and were the subject of the 2024 Netflix documentary “Skywalkers: A Love Story.”
-New York Post
The dingbat daredevils who got engaged atop the Empire State Building’s antenna were sprung Thursday after getting hit with a slew of charges for the cringe Instagram stunt.
A black catsuit-clad Angela Nikolau, 33, and her beau Ivan Kuznetsov, 32, beamed as clasped hands as they walked free from their arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court – nearly a day after he dropped on one knee more than 1,000 feet in the air.
“It’s the most powerful power: love,” Kuznetsov intoned in a thick Russian accent, shortly before playing serious tonsil hockey with Nikolau on the Chambers Street subway station’s steps.
“We believe in love.”
Nikolau didn’t wear her engagement ring that she flaunted on Instagram moments before NYPD cops also scaled the spire and arrested the perpetually posting pair Wednesday. The ring remained in a police station, Kuznetsov said as they navigated a swarm of reporters.
The exhibitionist lovebirds’ shameless smooching contrasted with their clear nervousness in court, where they were arraigned on charges that could send them to prison for up to seven years, if convicted.
The charges are also not eligible for bail under New York law, meaning the pair couldn’t be held behind bars ahead of their next court date Aug. 24.
But prosecutors did successfully request the thrillseekers be put on supervised release owing to the dangerousness of their foolish feat.
The alleged break-in caused $2,000 worth of damage and required the Empire State Building’s broadcast antenna to be powered down in order to prevent police rescuers from being exposed to dangerous high-frequency radio signals, prosecutors contended.
The duo are believed to have bought tickets at the Empire State Building Tuesday at around 9 p.m., before hiding at the Midtown landmark overnight, law-enforcement sources said.
Video showed them emerging from a hatch on the 102nd floor at roughly 5 a.m. the next day, the sources said.
Kuznetsov then used tools to loosen brackets for metal cables stretching across a stairwell, which they then allegedly entered, according to the sources.
What happened next was captured on numerous cameras, including the pair’s own – they scrambled up the building’s 1,454-foot-high antenna and unfurled a banner.
“When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace,” was the banner’s utterly cliché message.
After climbing down to a platform, Kuznetsov – who goes by Ivan “Vanya” Beerkus on social media – dropped to one knee and proposed to Nikolau as she still wore a black cat mask.
The happy couple received King Kong-levels of attention – even after NYPD officers likewise braved the heights and arrested them.
Powering down the antenna so NYPD Emergency Service Unit members could safely wrangle the devil-may-care couple took roughly 30 minutes, a criminal complaint revealed.
The pair were hit with burglary, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief charges, all felonies, in addition to misdemeanor counts of possession of burglary tools, trespass and criminal tampering.
Their defense attorney, Jason Krinsky, argued prosecutors overcharged and contended there was no evidence of burglary tools.
“Even the building’s own people, the Empire State’s own people, said there was no risk to tenants, guests on the observation deck or anyone in the building,” the lawyer claimed.
“It was a message of love,” he said. “She didn’t say ‘no.’ So you gotta give him that.”
Nikolau and Kuznetsov – who originally hail from Moscow, Russia, and now reside in East Orange, New Jersey – are no strangers to extreme climbing adventures.
Together, they’ve climbed Bay Bridge in San Francisco, the world’s second-tallest building – Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur – and were the subject of the 2024 Netflix documentary “Skywalkers: A Love Story.”
-New York Post
