A Toronto man said he was speechless when he witnessed someone traverse the side of a high-rise condo building to save a stranded cat on a neighbouring balcony.
Jeff Powell lives near Strachan Avenue and East Liberty Street. He said that he was shocked to look outside his window earlier this week to see a man walking along the ledge of the building.
Specifically, Powell was surprised by the man’s “casualness” as he crossed from unit to unit.
“Like it’s an everyday type thing, like opening your door and going for a walk down the hallway. It was definitely unique,” he said.
In the video, which Powell posted to Instagram on Wednesday night, the man appears to lift himself over the rail of a balcony and slide on to a ledge. Powell said the apartment unit is near the sixth floor of the high-rise building.
In the video, the man is seen walking across the ledge and leaning over the rail to grab the cat before walking back, holding the cat with both hands in front of him.
As he approaches his balcony, a friend is seen taking the cat from his hands before heading inside the apartment. The man is then seen in the video pulling himself back onto his balcony.
As of 6 p.m. on Thursday, the video has been viewed more than 10,000 times.
Powell said that he wanted to open his own balcony door and yell out at the man to “get back in there,” but was worried about the repercussions of doing so.
“Then, if I do that and he falls, that’s a big problem on me,” Powell said. “There’s so many things that I wanted to say, but all that came out was ‘no.’”
“I’m glad that it all worked out. He looked fearless there.”
Toronto police said they are aware of the video but saw nothing criminal about the incident. Police are, however, warning residents against taking such actions in the future.
