Would-Be Empire State Jumper Foiled

The host of a cable television show and professional BASE jumper — who passed through security at the Empire State Building wearing a rubber mask and foam fat suit that made him appear to be an overweight, elderly man — was arrested Thursday when he tried to parachute from the skyscraper, authorities said.

Much of the incident was

caught on tape

.

J. Ray Corliss IV, a Discovery Channel host from Malibu, Calif., was being charged with assault, reckless endangerment and other offenses, said Police Inspector James McCarthy.

Underneath Corliss' elaborate costume was a parachute, jumping gear and a helmet, police said. When he got to the 86th floor, he went into a bathroom, took off the fat suit and tried to carry out his stunt — wearing the helmet with a video camera attached.

The man peeled off the mask as he was getting set to jump, revealing his face.

But the building staff had been tipped to the caper, police said. Corliss, 30, climbed over a security fence on the side of the skyscraper, but a guard grabbed his leg before he could jump, they said.

"He was fighting with us to get off," said Timothy Donahue of the building security staff. "He wanted to jump off in the worst way."

"He was trying to jump. He was trying to get free. He was wrestling, trying to get free, saying, 'Let me go, let me go,' " witness Erin Skelton told reporter Andrea Stassou of CBS station WCBS-TV in New York.

"We were face-to-face, for quite awhile, because I'd actually gone up on the railing with him, and I had the harness through the bars," Donahue remarked to Stassou.

A lingering concern is how the man got past police, Stassou says.

"It's a very expensive, elaborate costume. … There's many visitors that visit the Empire State Building every day, and he walked in with the rest of the individuals, unnoticed," New York Police Department Deputy Inspector James McCarthy told reporters.