Nantucket Police Investigating Alleged Base Jumper At Miacomet Tower

Nantucket Police believe someone base jumped from the top of the 300-foot tall Miacomet radio tower around sunrise Tuesday morning, according to a police report obtained by the Current.

The investigation is ongoing, but police received a call from a witness who happened to be walking their dogs in the area just after 5 a.m. on Tuesday and saw a person base jump from the tower and descend with a parachute.

Base jumping is a recreational sport that involves jumping from fixed objects and using a parachute to reach the ground safely.

The case is being investigated as a trespassing incident, and no suspects have been identified.

As Nantucket Police officer Nick Iacozzi was responding to the area Tuesday morning, he encountered a woman walking her dogs.

"The female stated she observed a white male wearing a dark colored hoodie with the words 'Indian Summer' and a dark colored hat in the area with a camera," Iacozzi wrote in the incident report. "The female stated the male had the camera pointed in the direction of the tower. She lost sight of him and didn't know his direction of travel."

When they arrived at the tower, Iacozzi and officer Jack Moran discovered that the padlock was unlocked, and the chain was unsecured. Once inside the fence around the tower, they also noticed an electric panel door was unsecured, and there was freshly disturbed dirt at the base of the tower "as if someone had recently climbed to the top."

They contact the United States Coast Guard, which owns the tower, and confirmed that no one had authorization to access the area.

The tower is located behind the Miacomet Golf Course along the south shore of the island. The case remains under investigation.