Police: Man Rescued From Chelsea Building Was Trying To Break In

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A man rescued from the side of a Chelsea apartment building was hauled away in handcuffs after officers determined he was trying to break in, police said.

A woman called police around 3:30 a.m. Friday after seeing the suspect hanging outside her bedroom window on West 21st Street, CBS2 reported.

"I also heard someone screaming out nonsense gibberish…whatever it was made no sense," Helene, who lives on the fourth floor, told CBS2's Meg Baker.

Police said the man was first spotted on the roof, then fell and got caught in the scaffolding. It was pitch black outside so Helene wasn't sure exactly where he was, but knew he was near her bedroom window.

"Looking out I didn't know how close this person was to me, I could just hear him," she recalled.

Residents of the Chelsea Court apartment building thought they were dreaming, little did they know a nightmare was unfolding outside their windows.

"I was sleeping around 3:30-4, I heard all these people outside because I live right by the garden. I thought it was a party and there were these super bright flash lights," Jennifer Watson, a resident of the building, said.

Those lights were actually police searching for an intruder.

"I heard them say 'be careful, come down, we're on the way with a helicopter,'" Watson said.

Initially, residents thought the man had fallen on scaffolding.

Police found 51-year-old Cleneton Lewis on the backside of the building on 21st Street and 9th Avenue. NYPD said he was attempting to burglarize the building.

Once rescued from above, Lewis was arrested and charged with illegal entry to a building and criminal trespassing.

Police are investigating how he got onto the property. The front gate was locked and surveillance video does not show him entering the front door.

"You feel like you live in a safe neighborhood safe building and something like this happens and you no longer feel safe, you want to know how it happened," Helene told CBS2.