Window Washer Stirs Up Wave of Misunderstanding
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NEW YORK — A window washer was asked to stop waving to passers-by from atop a Manhattan skyscraper Thursday after police received calls from pedestrians and office workers who feared that he was planning to jump.
People in a crowd that gathered at 41st Street and 3rd Avenue, thinking the unidentified workman on the 31st floor intended to leap off the building, waved and gestured for him to come down, police officer Roger Owen said.
Instead, the window washer, who was straddling the ledge with one leg hanging over the side as he tried to connect the scaffold cables, began to wave back to the crowd. Officials said he apparently wanted to let the people know he was OK.
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