Daredevil Yearns to Be Free

A French stuntman dangled precariously from the Statue of Liberty on Thursday after the parachute of his glider snagged atop the monument’s torch.

Startled tourists on Liberty Island and office workers in lower Manhattan watched as rescuers climbed to the top of the statue and, after 45 minutes, used ropes to gingerly hoist the daredevil with a taste for political activism to safety.

“He was wrapped around the torch, in danger and in peril,” Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said. “. . . The police commissioner called me and began the conversation with saying, ‘Only in New York.’ ”

Thierry Devaux, 41, was taken away in handcuffs to a chorus of boos and cheers from the island’s visitors. The site was closed to tourists for about three hours after the stunt.

Police said Devaux, who wore stickers protesting the use of land mines, wanted to bungee jump from the torch. The stunt went awry when, after circling the statue several times in his motorized paraglider, its orange parachute got caught.

“We got him up, inch by inch. We got him to the top and we got him into the torch,” said Officer Christopher Ballou, who took part in the rescue.

Police said Devaux, who goes by the name Terry Do, grew increasingly agitated as he was left hanging more than 300 feet above New York’s harbor.

“He was dangling from the ropes. . . . If they were to snap or break, he obviously would have had a dire end,” said Dianna Russo, a visitor from London.

Added another tourist: “It looked like James Bond. . . . I thought it was Sean Connery coming down to take the bad guys away.”

Devaux, who authorities said has successfully bungee jumped from the Eiffel Tower, faces federal charges, including disorderly conduct and trespassing. He could receive six months in prison if found guilty.

“Not only did he put himself in danger, the lives of cops in danger, he also put the lives of innocent people near the statue [in danger] as well,” Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said.

Giuliani called Devaux’s stunt “very dumb and stupid.” He said the officers who participated in the rescue were “put in great peril.”

It was Devaux’s second arrest at the Statue of Liberty. Police said he was arrested June 16, 1994, on suspicion of defacing the monument after hiding inside it overnight.

Thursday’s incident began when National Park Service police noticed a man using a paraglider circling the statue.

Park police raced to the top of the statue when the parachute caught on the gilded torch. A police helicopter scrambled to the scene, as well as a fireboat and nearby police launch.

The officers found Devaux hanging on the back side of the torch and dropped a lifeline to secure him to the statue. After about 30 minutes, Devaux became impatient with the pace of the rescue and wanted to climb up on his own.

The decision was made to pull him up as quickly as possible. It was lofty and dangerous work for the five police officers perched on a small platform on the torch. All the officers began pulling on one of the ropes, and slowly Devaux was lifted to safety.

Police said Devaux, who was not injured, did not thank them. “He didn’t say too much,” one officer said.

The Statue of Liberty, the work of Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and a present from the French people in 1884, has been the site of previous protests. The latest was Nov. 6, 2000, when demonstrators draped Puerto Rican flags from the monument’s crown to condemn the U.S. Navy’s use of the island of Vieques as a bombing range.

On Dec. 2, 1990, a man decrying the conviction of Native American activist Leonard Peltier in the slaying of two FBI agents used mountain climbing gear to descend from the statue’s observation deck.

Perhaps the most spectacular stunt was Oct. 16, 1986, when an Australian daredevil jumped from the torch. Using a parachute, he landed safely.

Giuliani honored the rescuers at a City Hall news conference. One of the officers drew laughs when he said: “It was not the way I would like to visit the statue myself.”