Charges Filed Against Man Who Climbed Gulf Tower

A man who scaled the Gulf Tower in Downtown Pittsburgh has now been criminally charged.  Austin Seik was taken into custody after police took him into custody but released him Friday at the Gulf Tower. The day before, he’d climbed to the tower’s peak and posted videos of it on social media.  But on Saturday, the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police announced that Downtown Public Safety Center officers had obtained arrest warrants for Seik and a woman, alleging they “gained illegal access” to the tower.  Seik, 27, of Hookstown, and Mariah Lynn Barnes, 33, of Munhall, are charged with criminal trespass, police say.  According to the criminal complaint, police say Seik confessed to entering the Gulf Tower with Barnes on Thursday by using a paint scraper to get through the locked doors on Grant Street.  Police say it appears Seik made a hole through a wire fence in a restricted area of the building’s 38th floor to get to additional floors.  Seik and Barnes allegedly confessed to entering restricted areas of the building and acknowledged that doing so was a crime, the complaint says.