Man’s Fall Down Hoboken Staircase Captured On Google Maps

HOBOKEN, NJ — UPDATE: As of 8 p.m. on March 18, the Google Maps image of 725 Willow Avenue in Hoboken, New Jersey has apparently been changed. Read our update on the story. Our original article follows below.

A man’s tumble down a set of stairs at an apartment building in New Jersey has achieved online infamy after being captured in a Google Maps photo.

Type in the address “725 Willow Ave - Hoboken, New Jersey” into Google Maps and click on the Street View. Rotate the image until you find a brick apartment building on the corner with a green awning.

There, you will find the tumbling man of Hoboken.

There are seven steps leading up to the apartment’s first floor and a cringe-inducing cement sidewalk at the bottom. This fact makes it all the more painful when one realizes that the Hoboken tumbling man started his descent facing backwards. (See below image)

Several bystanders can be seen looking in the direction of the tumbling man.

According to a Google Maps time stamp, the street view photo was taken in August 2018.

What caused the fall? Is the victim (hopefully) OK? Does he know that his moment of pain and suffering has become a viral meme? Are there other people yet undiscovered on Google Maps, also captured in mid-plummet? For now, the answers remain unclear.

Read more about Google's policies for its Street View imagery here.

Patch reached out to Google’s media contacts via email seeking comment about the images. We've also reached out to the Hoboken Police Department seeking any information about a serious fall in the area during that time frame. We will include any replies we receive in this article.

However, those worrying about the tumbling man's well-being might find some comfort in the following comment left for this article on Tuesday:

"Hi! I am the girl in the black holding the flowers. I called an ambulance for the gentleman that fell and they came to take care of him. He was okay!"

On Monday evening – after several news outlets published stories about the tumbling man – the Google Maps images were apparently swapped out for a photo of an empty staircase.

On Tuesday, the photo was swapped yet again for the original August 2018 photo... but this time with the falling man blurred out.

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