A 35-year-old woman on a first date plunged to her death today after the railing on her 17th-floor New York City balcony gave way, police said.
Jennifer Rosoff went outside for a cigarette around 12:50 am when she either sat on the railing or leaned on it. Her date told her that she probably shouldn't do it, and then moments later, she fell and landed on construction scaffolding at the first floor, authorities said.
Police spoke to the man and cleared him of any possible wrongdoing.
Emergency crews pronounced Rosoff dead at the scene. The medical examiner will determine a cause of death.
The gray brick high-rise building on Manhattan's Upper East Side was built before World War II. Only the higher-floor corner apartments have balconies, and the city's buildings department issued a partial vacate order for them.
A photo of the corner balcony of the apartment where Rosoff lived shows the top two metal railings bent down in a V-shape.
Buildings officials took part of the broken railing to examine how it could have given way and plan to determine whether the other balconies are structurally sound.
