FORESTHILL (KTXL) — Three men were arrested Sunday after Placer County sheriff’s deputies say they were seen BASE jumping from the Foresthill Bridge.
The sheriff’s office says deputies were at the bridge shortly after 9 p.m. responding to reports of a suicidal woman. There, investigators say they witnessed three people with parachutes jump from the catwalk under the bridge.
The Placer County Sheriff’s Office says the men first climbed out onto a catwalk hanging underneath the bridge. There were six or seven of them.
“Yeah, they scooped up their shoots and tried to run,” said Placer County Lt. Andrew Scott. “State Parks turned on their lights and sirens, was able to catch up to them because they were in a vehicle and these guys were on foot.”
A park ranger below caught and arrested three: 27-year-old Christopher Ludlow of Sacramento, 30-year-old Christopher Peterson of Davis and 29-year-old Michael King of South Lake Tahoe.
Ludlow, Peterson and King were booked into the Placer County Jail in Auburn for trespassing and resisting arrest.
At 730 feet above the ground, it is the tallest span in California and the fourth highest in all the United States. It is a popular destination for photographers and thrill seekers.
Lt. Scott says in roughly the last two and a half years alone, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office has been called out there some 30 times and arrested or cited 88 people for either trespassing or BASE jumping.
“And sometimes when people do the BASE jumping in parachutes they can get caught up in the trees, especially when they do it at night and can’t see very well,” Scott said.
That was the case in 2011 when a base jumper got hung up. The Placer County Sheriff’s Department had to send their parachute to cut him down. It was a risky mission for law enforcement and the jumper.