Texas man swings from crane with selfie stick in mysterious viral stunt

A photo of a construction site and a man swinging from a crane.

A man is going viral after being spotted filming himself swinging from a miles-high construction crane in downtown Austin, Texas, gathering crowds of curious bystanders.

In the early hours of Easter Sunday on April 20, 2025, a man wearing a cowboy hat was seen swinging nonchalantly from a construction crane on top of a building on Guadalupe Street’s 400 block in downtown Austin.

A video of the incident was captured by Texas local Jack Zimmermann, and quickly went viral online as viewers couldn’t believe the man’s seemingly nonchalant attitude to being so high above ground.

Speaking to local news outlets, residents claimed they were equally confused and concerned for the crane-swinging stuntman, with one saying, “I thought maybe it was a new form of base jumping.”

“I could not watch after I saw him dangling there because I thought he was going to cut the cable or whatever,” another admitted.

Mystery man goes viral after swinging from miles-high crane in Texas

In the video, the man makes several wide swings while seemingly filming himself, unperturbed, before climbing up to the crane and making his way down to the roof of the building.

Austin police officers responded to the scene at 9:59 AM and evacuated the area out of “an abundance of caution.” News outlets state that they are still looking for the crane-swinging man, who has not yet been publicly identified.

No arrests have been made, and the situation is still under investigation at the time of writing.

While it’s unclear if the man was filming himself for potential online content, he wouldn’t be the first to seek viral fame from high-flying stunts; in 2024, YouTube daredevil Ben ‘Reckless Ben’ Schnieder evaded police after successfully recording himself walking across tightrope strung between two skyscrapers in Los Angeles.

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And in 2023, 30-year-old French content creator Remi Lucidi fell to his death while climbing a 721 foot tall skyscraper, one of many such undertakings he’d successfully accomplished in the past.