Florida man arrested after climbing 150-foot cell tower, causing up to $500,000 in damages

A man who climbed a cell tower in Miami early Wednesday without safety gear, causing major damage and a service outage as he spent hours up on the structure before coming down, has been arrested, police said.

The bizarre incident began when Miami Police said the man started climbing the cell tower at 29th Street and Northwest 13th Avenue in Allapattah sometime between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., after allegedly impersonating a T-Mobile worker.

At one point, the man shut down the main power at the bottom of the tower and shut down a T-Mobile carrier, according to police.

A technician for T-Mobile called a worker in around 5 a.m. after they had been notified that the tower had lost power. The worker got to the tower at 6 a.m. and saw power was turned off manually, said police.

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The worker decided to call police once he saw the man climbing the tower, and stated the man greeted him.

"He gets here around 6 and notices the power has been turned off manually and then he’s greeted by a voice that says 'hey, good morning,'" Miami Police spokesman Michael Vega said.

According to an arrest report, the worker watched as the man started pulling apart communication cables attached to antennas

"The man starts telling the T-Mobile worker “God bless you, why don’t you see the view from here?'" Vega said.

Officers responded to the scene and worked to get the climber down since around 7 a.m. According to police, when officers asked the man to come down, he said “No I’m not done working yet.”

Footage showed the man, wearing a red shirt and ripped jeans, walking around on top of the towers as onlookers on the ground took photos and video with their phones.

The man was spotted by officers pulling apart communications parts and tossing the pieces to the ground as he reached the top of the tower, which is about 150 feet off the ground, the arrest report said.

Miami Police

The man finally came down around 11 a.m. after about four hours of negotiations. Police said the man didn't threaten to jump or harm anyone, and wasn't wearing safety equipment or a harness.

The man, identified as 38-year-old Richard Smith, of Orange City, was taken into custody and arrested on charges including burglary and criminal mischief.

Authorities don't know why he decided to climb the tower but said it appears he has experience either climbing or working with cellphone towers because of the way he was moving around.

The arrest report said Smith caused damages totaling between $100,000 and $500,000 and "caused a wide range of cellular outage for customers until damages can be fixed."

Police also confirmed that everything on the tower has been turned off and reassured that "signal might be a little low around the area but the other towers are picking up so signal will still be up for those in the area but very low."

"After our systems alerted us that there was a service issue at this site, which we and other providers lease from a vendor, our field technician responded, determined that there was an unauthorized entry, and called local authorities," a T-Mobile spokesperson said in a statement. "We are grateful to the Miami Police Department and Miami Fire Rescue for their response and will continue to support their investigation. Fortunately, everyone is safe and overlapping coverage in the area will continue to ensure customers remain connected."

This is a developing story, check back with NBC6 for updates.