Corrected at the bottom: Turns out he was only half-naked. Headline has changed.

Getting naked is always a great way to kick of the weekend. But not if you do it in public.

A man climbed an eight-story electrical tower in North Hollywood today and stood off with officers for nearly four hours before they got him to come down, police said:

It started about 4:30 p.m. when cops were alerted to the climber on a tower near Oxnard Street and Whitnall Highway in North Hollywood, LAPD Det. Gus Villanueva told us. The man appeared to be armed with some kind of tool, he said.


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He estimated the tower is eight stories high. The climber started to disrobe and apparently ended up in Full Monty mode, Villanueva said.

Authorities were concerned that he might fry his man parts and so they shut down the electricity with the help of the L.A. Department of Water and Power, he said.

In the mean time an LAPD SWAT team went to the scene and, with the help of the L.A. Fire Department and its high-rise equipment, coaxed the man down shortly after 8:30 p.m., Villanueva said.

Mental evaluation experts were at the scene, Villanueva said. You know, just in case the guy's imbalanced.

[Added at 10:24 p.m.]: Actually the guy was coaxed down with the promise of a blanket and the help of DWP equipment, Villanueva said.

It wasn't immediately clear if he'd be arrested or committed.

[Corrected at 10:38 p.m.]: The most tragic part of this story is that police now say he was half-naked, sans top, says Villanueva. Seems that he was so far up — 180 to 200 feet — nobody could tell for sure.

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