Angela Nikolau and Ivan Kuznetsov woke up in a jail cell after their sky-high proposal. Hours later they were kissing on the courthouse steps like the whole thing never happened.
So what were Angela Nikolau and Ivan Kuznetsov actually charged with, and how did they get to the top of the Empire State Building without anyone stopping them?
Start with the charges. Nikolau, 33, and Kuznetsov, 32, were hit with three felonies (burglary, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief) plus three misdemeanors (trespass, criminal tampering and possession of burglary tools), according to the New York Post.
Now the how. Law-enforcement sources say the couple bought tickets Tuesday at 9 p.m. and hid inside the Midtown landmark overnight, waiting out closing and the last of the observation-deck crowds.
Around 5 a.m. they emerged from a hatch on the 102nd floor. Kuznetsov used tools to loosen the brackets on metal cables stretching across a stairwell, and the two climbed through to the antenna more than 1,000 feet up, where he proposed.
Their first night as an engaged couple was spent in separate holding cells. They were arraigned around 9 a.m. Thursday at Manhattan Criminal Court on Centre Street, still wearing the same black outfits from the climb, and cut loose on supervised release with no bail. They’re due back in court August 24.
Defense attorney Jason Krinsky argued the charges were overkill, said even the building’s own people conceded there was no risk to tenants or guests on the observation deck, and leaned into the romance of it. “It was a message of love,” he said. “She didn’t say ‘no.’ So you gotta give him that.”
Photographers caught the couple kissing as they left the courthouse and headed for the Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall subway station, one long kiss in full public view before they disappeared underground.
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