Fake Window Washing & Other High Flying Stunts

An Ad in Tallinn Center, Estonia, with fake window-washers.

Fake window cleaner arrested near Queen’s palace: About 30 people have become victims of the fake window cleaner who was active in The Hague, Rijswijk and Delft. The man was arrested on Saturday by the Royal Military Police in the Haagse Bos. The fake window cleaner rang doorbells and asked residents for money for cleaning windows. But in reality he did nothing. The police warned residents several times about a man in an un-groomed appearance with bad teeth. The Royal Military Police noticed the ‘window cleaner’ near the Queen’s residence of Huis ten Bosch when they approached and arrested him.

Greenpeace Shames Apple With, Um, Fake Window-Washing.. you may remember this one from a previous blog here. Greenpeace had upped the ante in its fight to get Apple to commit to using more renewable energy in its data centers. Or at least it tried to up the ante.

To highlight the extreme quality of sponges, Scotch-Brite, a brand of 3M, used a window cleaning platform and turned it into a huge sponge. The effect could be seen by passers-by near a building of the legendary Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid. Only nobody told them that green pads scratch glass.

Web of Lies by Mark Tisdale: This blotchy photo (obviously saved and re-saved a number of times, a sure tip off for a questionable story) is purported to be of window washers at a Children’s hospital in London. Note all the missing details – what hospital for instance? As far as I was able to deduce in a grand 5 minutes of web searching is that this is actually a Shanghai Sheraton Hotel! Granted this is taking the word of another website that could be equally misinformed, but the fact that this story appears back in 2008 and the only time I find this photo associated with the children’s hospital story is this year makes me suspect the more recent version. I’m surprised for a change that a little more digging shows there’s a kernel of truth. I found this article on a Southwark newspaper’s site from 2010 showing a completely different photo with far more details about a superhero duo of window washers at the Evelina Hospital. Ladies and gentlemen, those are the heroes you’re looking for!

DIY Brooklyn Man On A Ledge Cleans His Own Damn Windows: Look, not everyone can afford professionals to come wash their precious windows, with their fancy safety equipment and insurance. Sometimes you've just got to climb out on a ledge with a couple rags and DO IT YOURSELF. The fastidious fellow in this video knows what we're talking about—after all, why do architects put ledges on buildings if people aren't meant to climb out there? 

The witness who took this video says the man was cleaning the windows on the third floor ledge for approximately 20 minutes, "with my entire office gasping and holding our breath." Out tipster, tells us the building is located on the corner of Washington and Front Streets in DUMBO, and adds, "I can't believe he couldn't see all 50 of us pressed to the window watching. It was nuts and we haven't seen him do it since." We can only conclude that while our mystery man isn't afraid of heights, it really freaks him out when people stare at him.