Two men wearing parachute backpacks arrested after allegedly scaling Newton communications tower

By Alli Knothe, Globe Correspondent

Two men wearing parachute backpacks and helmets were arrested after allegedly climbing up a communications tower near Saco Street in Newton, police said.

Tighe Crumb, 31, of Salem, N.H.; and Thomas Becker, 28, of Derry, N.H., were charged with trespassing, disturbing the peace, and wanton destruction of property.

At about 9:15 p.m. Sunday, police were called to the old WHDH-TV tower, where they found two men about half-way up the roughly 1,200-foot tall tower, police said.

Police got the men’s attention and called them down from the tower. Safely on the ground, the men climbed over the barbed-wire fence that surrounded the structure and were arrested.

One of the men’s helmets had a camera affixed to it.

In October, a worker fell about 500 feet to his death from that tower on Chestnut Street.