Less than a week after restrictions were lifted on late-night sidewalk use for downtown Raleigh bars and restaurants, one man this weekend seemed intent on reinforcing the “DrunkTown” stereotype at the heart of the sidewalk-drinking controversy.
At approximately 10:11 a.m. on Sunday, the Raleigh Police Department received a call for service on West Davie Street following reports of a man who was stuck on either the rooftop or a windowsill ledge of a downtown building.
By 10:30 a.m., the portion of West Davie between Fayetteville and Salisbury was blocked off by a handful of police cars and a ladder truck from the Raleigh Fire Department. Several bystanders had gathered to watch as a fireman helped escort a man, who appeared to have been sitting just outside a second-story window of the Sir Walter apartment building, down the ladder.
An officer on the scene told this reporter that “we’ve got everything under control,” but did not elaborate further.
Jim Sughrue, the director of Public Affairs for the Raleigh Police Department, confirmed with the Record that “our call location was recorded as 319 Fayetteville St. at 10:11 a.m., although I’m not sure exactly where it occurred — Hudson Condos, Capital Bank, ‘between Salisbury and Fayetteville above bail bonds office’ and 15 W. Davie St. are all mentioned.”
Sughrue went on to explain that the call had come in because:
“A male reported that he had been drinking the night before and awoke on the roof of a building without knowledge of how he got there.”
