Daredevil Walks Tightrope Between L.A. Skyscrapers

The Los Angeles Police Department has launched a criminal investigation in response to a daredevil's viral tightrope walk between the iconic L.A. graffiti towers.

Ben Schneider, also known as "Reckless Ben," performed the stunt 45 stories high, balancing on a nylon rope stretched between two Oceanwide Plaza towers in downtown L.A. in early May. He spent two minutes walking on the rope, referring to the act as "moral graffiti," CBS News reported.

"This is like the biggest canvas the world has ever seen," Schneider said. "I'm not much of a good graffiti artist, but I can do some crazy performance art, so I put up the slackline. It's still there."

Speaking with ABC 7 Los Angeles, Schneider admitted he was "very scared."

"I was looking down … When you get scared you start to shake and when you shake, the line shakes and then you fall off," he said.

"I didn't want to fall. You just have to calm your mind," he added.

To kick off the stunt, Schneider and his crew managed to slip past police and access the downtown L.A. property. He recalled friends holding religious signs while he snuck into one of the vacant buildings to reach the top.

"The police are definitely after me, which is why it's very risky for me to be doing this interview," he added.

Since 2019, the unfinished 1.5 million-square-foot property in Los Angeles has become a hotspot for social media stunts and graffiti artists. This has led city officials and the LAPD to step up efforts to prevent unauthorized entry.

Speaking with media about his stunt, Schneider wore a duck mask, saying, "Now I got to walk with a mask around because there is an active investigation on me."

The stunt originally appeared on YouTube but has since been removed from the Reckless Ben channel, CBS News noted.

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