'Rapper' Climbs Light Pole in Times Square, Shuts Down Traffic

TIMES SQUARE -- Police shut down a portion of Times Square to traffic Tuesday after a man climbed a light pole on 44th Street.

Hundreds of people gathered in the crossroads of the world to gawk at the man, who clambered up the traffic light pole in Times Square around 9 a.m. Tuesday, as emergency workers shut down the area near Seventh Avenues and West 44th Street.

After police coaxed him for nearly 2 hours, the man finally came down the pole in front of 1500 Seventh Ave. around 11:15 a.m.

Officers took him away in handcuffs. They had been standing on top of a police vehicle, talking to the man, as other emergency workers inflated a yellow airbag under the lightpost.

At one point the man stood on the pole and started rapping, leading at least one onlooker into thinking it was a publicity stunt.

"He's trying to promote a CD," Carlos Amaro, 24, of Queens. "It's creative when you come to think about it, but this was not the right way to do it."

Amaro, however, didn't know who the man was or what the CD was.

Some voyeurs grew impatient.

"Hurry up and jump already," a man in the crowd yelled.

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