San Diego - Stunt men stop suicide attempt

SAN DIEGO - It seemed like a Comic-Con stunt to advertise a new movie, but it turned out to be a life-or-death situation as a group of stuntmen rescued a young woman dangling from the balcony of a downtown building on Thursday.

Cellphone video obtained by 10News San Diego showed a woman who appeared to be ready to jump from the 14th floor of a high-rise.

Several stuntmen from a company called Stunts 911 responded to screams of "don't jump!" and "somebody get in there and help her!" The experienced stuntmen were putting up a scaffolding for a movie premiere party nearby when they heard the commotion and sprang into action.

  

Gregg Sergeant and his crew ran to the building, scaled a fence and quickly located a security guard, who took them up to the 14th floor apartment.

"[We] burst into the room and she was on the patio. She'd even closed the door so we couldn't get to her," said Sergeant, the stunt team's supervisor.

As luck would have it, the woman was facing outward and did not see the men enter through the closed glass sliding door.

Sergeant quietly went behind the woman and then quickly locked her in a bear hug. His friends, Scott Schecter and Amos Carver, then rush in behind.

"Just as we got to her, she was just leaning out," said Sergeant.

"I hooked my arms underneath her leg and we pulled her back in and carried her into the room and laid her on the couch, and she was very upset," said Schecter.

Carver was already wearing scaffolding rigging, which helped in the rescue.

"It was just real easy to grab something off and throw it around her and yank her entirely back in," said Carver.

Police told 10News the woman had been drinking and was upset over the breakup of a relationship.

Sergeant said they got there just in time.

"I was just so thankful we got there when we got there. I think if we'd been there two seconds later, she would've been gone," Sergeant said.

Sergeant told 10News he and his crew do not want to be thought of as heroes. He said when police arrived seconds after the rescue, one of the officers said, "Thank you."