CenturyLink climber photos get Seahawks' attention

SEATTLE — Pictures of a man or men climbing prohibited areas of the Space Needle and CenturyLink Field were spread around the Internet, and even the Seattle Seahawks took notice on Twitter.

The images, posted Tuesday to sites including Reddit and Twitter, show a man sitting atop what appears to be the roof of CenturyLink Field.  Another shows a man sitting atop the Space Needle months ago when it was painted Galaxy Gold, and another image appears to have been taken from above the King Street Station clock.

No one has publicly identified themselves for the incident, and it's not clear if the images are real or created with photo editing software.

"Wow, How did they do that?!"  or  "Is that real?"

Those were some of the surprised and impressed reactions KIRO 7 got when people were shown death-defying pictures of some of the most recognizeable landmarks in Seattle: the Space Needle, CenturyLink Field, King Street Station and the Municipal Building.  They were taken by a man - or men - who go by the name Shutter Subversive.

The photos are amazing.  One shows a man nestled in the crook of the Space Needle's support beam from hundreds of feet in the air.  Another was apparently taken from the flag pole on the tip of the Needle.

The biggest problem is that the Space Needle didn't know the nighttime pictures were being taken until after they were posted.  They don't know how the men got up there.  It appears they climbed.

The pictures from the CenturyLink are just as startling:  A man sitting on top of the roof, looking down on the field.  They're beautiful, high-quality photos.  They also make some people feel a little uncomfortable because the men apparently did not have permission to be there.

Tuesday's images are similar to climbs last year on Seattle's Great Wheel.

A picture from June shows a man with his face blurred sitting atop the Pier 57 wheel at night. The images circulated shortly before the wheel opened.

"Those are amazing!"  said Gerardo Chavez, visiting from Vancouver, B.C.   Then a minute later, Chavez admitted they also made him wonder how easy it was to sneak into what should be secured places.

"Now, we are thinking terrorism," he said, referring to the Boston bombings. "Yes, that's really scary."

KIRO 7  sent the photos to Seattle Police Department Public Information Officer Jeff Kappel.  He hadn't seen them before and said they would be passed along to investigators who would look into how the men got access to the various locations.

The Great Wheel's general manager, Gerry Hall, told KIRO 7 in September he had no idea there was a video of the stunt, and said he would take measures to make sure it wouldn't happen again.

A fence was erected after the incident.

Video of the Great Wheel case shows one man climbing while another man holds the camera.

The video was posted on the Vimeo Website by someone calling himself "Written in Black."  The user's page also had a video of men sneaking onto a grain elevator above a ship.

Space Needle pictures were pictured this month to the Imagur website. Images from CenturyLink are affiliated with a Reddit account for shuttersubversive – an unidentified man claiming to be an arm who no longer lives in Seattle. The Seahawks retweeted the CenturyLink image with the message, "Woah." The post, sent shortly after noon Tuesday, was later deleted.

KIRO