MIAMI – Authorities responded to a cellphone tower in Miami Wednesday morning after a man climbed up on it.
According to City of Miami Fire-Rescue Lt. Pete Sanchez, the man, who police identified as Richard Smith, 38, of Orange City, threatened to jump from the tower on Northwest 29th Street and 13th Avenue.
Local 10′s cameras on the ground captured what looked like a Bible Smith was carrying. At one point, he stuffed it in his pants to keep it from falling.
Miami police say it all started around 1 a.m. when a T-Mobile worker saw that the power had been cut off to the tower.
Police said the worker arrived to the area around 5 a.m. and confronted Smith, who was already up in the air, claiming he was an employee as well, and was there to complete a job and was “fixing the equipment.”
Knowing that wasn’t the case, the T-Mobile worker called police, starting an hours-long standoff, with hostage negotiators even ascending on a ladder truck at some point to try and coax Smith down.
Throughout the standoff, police said Smith was seen kicking and pulling apart some of the communication parts of the cellphone tower and tossing them down on the ground.
Authorities confirmed he continued this until he reached the top of the tower, which is approximately 150 feet above the ground level.
But after several hours, he eventually came down on his own and surrendered peacefully to police.
“Shortly before 11 a.m., the suspect came down. And once he was down, he shook hands with every officer that was there, and every firefighter that was there,” Miami Police Officer Mike Vega said. “He apologized and right now the negotiating team is talking to him. He is in our custody. However, we haven’t handcuffed him yet. He’s exhausted, obviously. He was up there for many hours.”
According to AT&T, T-Mobile and Crown Castle representatives who were present at the scene during the incident, Smith’s actions resulted in damages estimated to be between $100,000 and $500,000. Additionally, these damages led to a broad spectrum of cellular outages for customers, which they say will persist until repairs are completed and services are restored.
Jail records show smith is facing charges of burglary of an occupied structure and criminal mischief.
Smith appeared in a Miami-Dade courtroom on Thursday, where a judge set his total bond at $35,000.
The judge also put Smith on house arrest and ordered him to stay from the cell tower.
While in court, Jared Smith, Richard Smith’s younger brother, told a judge that Robert Smith had been exhibiting erratic behavior for weeks and requested a Baker Act and psychiatric hold.
Jared Smith said he also filed a missing person’s report for his brother weeks ago.
The judge stated that the court cannot Baker Act anyone; however, the jail might have the ability to do so.