Menlo Park firefighters responded Tuesday morning to reports of a man throwing objects from an elevated billboard near Highway 101 in Palo Alto, authorities confirmed.
East Palo Alto Police requested assistance from firefighters after discovering that a ladder was needed to rescue the man, fire officials said. Upon arrival firefighters discovered a man hanging from a catwalk attached to a billboard about 25 feet off the ground.
Fire crews used a 108-foot aerial ladder with ropes as a makeshift crane to rescue the man, who was transported to a hospital for evaluation, officials said.
“We occasionally have used our aerial ladders as makeshift cranes to remove people and animals from trees, creek beds, culverts, bridges, rooftops or open basements under construction, usually under similar unique circumstances,” Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman said. “I guess we can now add billboards to that list.”
The text on the billboard read “order weed online.” Schapelhouman said some wondered if that had to do with the man’s motive for climbing the sign.
“Someone suggested that the wording on the billboard may have been what made him climb up there,” Schapelhouman said.
