Slidell police said they arrested a couple who scaled a 215-foot water tower early Friday in a quest to have intimate relations "on top of the world."
"I guess they wanted to take their relationship to a higher level," Slidell police Lt. Rob Callahan said.
John C. Meyers, 44, of Alexandria, and Brenda Orme, 45, of Slidell, were booked with criminal trespassing and disturbing the peace by being intoxicated in public.
Shortly after 3 a.m., police received a complaint about someone "hootin' and hollerin' " on top of the water tower in the 3300 block of Front Street, Callahan said.
Police found a car parked near the tower's unlocked gate, but no one responded when an officer used a loudspeaker to call out to whoever was on the tower.
As two officers began to climb the ladder, two people, later identified as Meyers and Orme, started coming down. The officers met them on a catwalk and escorted them to the ground, Callahan said.
"When asked why they climbed the tower, Meyers said he wanted to have sex 'on top of the world,' " Callahan said, adding that it is unknown whether the couple completed their mission.
Although the tower is one of the highest points in St. Tammany Parish, it falls far short of Mount Everest, the true 'top of the world.' It would take 135 such towers to match Everest's 29,000-foot peak, a fact not lost on Police Chief Freddy Drennan.
"This is the poor man's version of the mile-high club," Drennan said.
Meyers and Orme were being held in the Slidell City Jail, where their bail had not been set Friday afternoon.
Meyers, who was working for a company that is repainting the 750,000- gallon tower, had a key to the gate. He has since been fired by Apache Construction, police said.
Former co-workers said they were surprised by the stunt, even though they described Meyers as a bit eccentric.
"I can't believe he was able to get her to climb up there," said one of the workers, who asked not to be identified. "I can't even get my wife to stand on a foot stool to change a light bulb."
