On Wednesday, two people scaled the Empire State Building, flew a flag with a hippie message, and the event ended in a proposal. And yes, their asses got hauled away in handcuffs. You can’t just hang on top of the building like King Kong (via ABC 7 NY):
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BREAKING: A Manhattan judge granted the alleged Empire State Building climbers supervised release… and they shared a massive kiss before descending the subway stairs. Story coming @Gothamist pic.twitter.com/RUlw8lLshl
— brittany.kriegstein (@BKriegstein) July 2, 2026
Ended in a proposal pic.twitter.com/dJgVx7Pxdm
— Ajakara🐸_🙂↔️ (@theweb3gidz) July 1, 2026
Kissing daredevils arrested after Empire State Building proposal stunt https://t.co/69DDUzqdAa pic.twitter.com/z2ftSVtO9A
— New York Post (@nypost) July 2, 2026
A couple wearing black climbed to the top of the Empire State Building’s transmitter, and by the time they climbed back down, they were engaged, and then arrested.
Angela Nikolau, 33, and Ivan Kuznetsov, 32, were hit with numerous charges following their stunt — including burglary, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, violation of local laws, possession of burglar’s tools, criminal tampering, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct.
They were walked out of an NYPD police precinct in Midtown on Wednesday night.
Hours earlier, Nikolau and Kuznetsov held a pro-peace banner at the very top of the spire, and the couple shared some kisses just after noon.
It appeared to read, “When the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace.”
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They’ve since been released from custody, but whatever their message on that black flag was has been lost to the Internet, whose reactions were much better:
Powerful message pic.twitter.com/ggsAAmrogi
— The Knicks Wall (@TheKnicksWall) July 1, 2026
USA 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Qrt7v7wy40
— Planet Of Memes (@PlanetOfMemes) July 1, 2026
What a waste of a sign.
Could have just put “Fire Stearns” on the banner and healed the City https://t.co/ZtFtoOUaQV
— Nicky The Good (@nickythegood) July 1, 2026
— Republicans (@Republicans) July 1, 2026
Just in: atop the Empire State Building… pic.twitter.com/se61RNgSPf
— Fag Finder (@FAGfind) July 1, 2026
Powerful stuff pic.twitter.com/iwjyfrfqeQ
— Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) July 1, 2026
Closeup of the banner they were holding on the Empire State Building 🫵🏼😝 pic.twitter.com/DmMK8yStmO
— Politi_Rican 🇵🇷 𝕏 🇺🇸 (@TheRicanMemes) July 1, 2026
The flag had “Knicks in 5” on it. That’s the one I’m going with.
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