Man videoed jumping across rooftop of New York high-rise

A man in New York City has baffled the internet after he was filmed jumping across a rooftop hundreds of feet above the ground.

The Big Apple is home to all kinds of bizarre goings-on, but typically the daredevil parkour antics are the preserve of youthful vest-clad muscle men.

However, on Tuesday (4 October) a middle-aged suited and booted bloke was caught on camera leaping across the rooftops of a high-rise in Manhattan.

Watch here:

As chance would have it, Emmy-winning cinematographer Erik Ljung was in an opposing building on West Street when he spotted the bloke running and jumping across the building front - and naturally, he started filming.

"I looked outside to see if the clouds were going to break, and I saw this guy jumping from awning to awning," he told the New York Post.

"I was like, 'Yo, you guys have to check this out,' … Everyone came over to the window to look.

"At first, we thought he was a parkour guy — but he wasn't young and didn't seem in shape, and he wasn't taking selfies.

"He was in a suit and dress shoes and it had been raining, so it seemed unnecessarily risky."

Erik Ljung/@erik_ljung/LOCAL NEWS X /TMX

But despite the obvious risk, the fella didn't seem too phased by it.

"He looked oddly comfortable doing this," Ljung, of Chicago, said. "I'm from out of town, so I figured it was just another weird New York moment."

The Post did a little bit of digging into the mystery man and discovered that he was, in fact, a building contractor.

Andrea, a resident in the 115-year-old building, said he climbed through the window of an apartment on the 23rd floor after taking photos of a leak.

She said: "My skylight leaks — it's been raining for five days. Andrew, the super in the building, got the construction guy to come up and look at it.

"Next thing I know, I'm in the kitchen looking up at him and he's up there on the skylight taking pictures.

"He was really on top of those roofs with nothing. I mean, I just thought it was a little crazy. That's all there was to it. He got out through a window on the 23rd floor and that's all there is to it."

Man, some people really do go above and beyond for their job.

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