Daredevil couple climb spire atop Empire State Building in apparent marriage proposal 28%
By Colin Mixson63% Rocco Parascandola54% Emma Seiwell50% Thomas Tracy42%
7/1/2026, 5:04:33 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 13 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Availability Heuristic, and Negativity Bias, with Halo Effect as the most egregious example at 12% saturation with 50 hits. Analysis detected 366 faulty-reasoning hits from 416 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 38.9% and a BS Rank of 28% (15,818 of 21,886 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 72.30% of the article peer group.
A daredevil couple climbed to the top of the Empire State Building in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday and unfurled a banner about love during an apparent marriage proposal.
Cops were called to the iconic W. 34th St. skyscraper after Ivan “Vanya” Beerkus and Angela Nikolau, stars of a 2024 Netflix documentary “Skywalkers: A Love Story,” climbed from the observation tower to the base of the building’s antenna around noon.
The couple, dressed in black with Nikolau wearing her trademark Catwoman cowl, released a banner that read “When the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace” 1,454 feet above the ground.
Beerkus then got down on one knee and appeared to pop the question while holding out a small object in his hand, video taken by passing helicopters shows.
Nikolau happily accepted and kissed Beerkus.
Members of an NYPD Emergency Services Unit took the pair into custody when they climbed down.
Body-cam footage uploaded by NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch on X shows cops outfitted in climbing gear nabbing the couple as they descended a ladder on the tower’s spire.
“Hello, how you doing?”
one officer says.
“You can’t be up here.”
Nikolau tells the cop, “I’m ok,” before he grabs her arm and orders another officer to move her away from the ladder to clear a path for Beerkus, who is still climbing down, the video shows.
The cop then asks the couple what language they speak and the video ends shortly after they answer, “Russian.”
The two were whisked away in an NYPD van waiting for them in the building’s loading dock, so they were unable to greet onlookers gathered at the base of the building.
While they were on the top of the Empire State Building, the two took a picture of themselves holding hands with Manhattan below them.
The pair, who both reside in East Orange, NJ, were each slapped with eight charges for the stunt, including burglary, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, possession of burglar’s tools and criminal trespass, cops said.
The two are known for climbing skyscrapers without ropes or harnesses.
Nikolau on her Instagram describes herself as a “Neoartist exploring identity, fear and freedom.”
“My dream is to push the boundaries of what’s acceptable in art,” she writes.
The stunt comes as another couple, superstar Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce, are expected to be married in Madison Square Garden this weekend.
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2speakers11%attributed speech372writer words
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50%flagged-word coverageAngela Nikolau
28 attributed words64% of attributed speech66% writer coverage
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