July 10--A 47-year-old man broke into a wooden enclosure and scaled 60 feet up the platform of a cell phone tower Saturday and kept authorities at bay for about an hour before deciding to come down, authorities said.
Firefighters positioned a ladder truck near the site and directed the ladder close enough to the platform where the man safely, and voluntarily, got back down, Odessa police Lt. Carey Sampson said. Dispatchers received a call at about 8:50 p.m. about the man at the cell phone tower located at the corner of East Sixth Street and Dixie Boulevard, an industrial area.
Police and fire crews surrounded the area as a few people watched the drama unfold. Sampson said the man has been placed under psychiatric observation. The man's name was not disclosed but he was described as white, Sampson said. "He's not making a lot of sense," Sampson said. One witness, Joe Hernandez, said he owns a commercial building that sits next to the cell phone tower and explained that the gate surrounding the site isn't enough to keep people from entering.
"That door has never been secure," Hernandez said, adding that he heard the man holler out "Viva Mexico" during the confusion.
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