New York Man Hires Rock Climbers on Craigslist to Retrieve His Passport from His Stairless House. The Climbers Got Unexpected Rewards for The Job.

Craigslist has a reputation for having the strangest listings for an online marketplace. But for those looking for something unconventional, the site’s reputation comes in handy. When a doctor from New York City needed rock climbers to retrieve his passport from another floor of his house, professional Wilder Troxell (@wilderoneandonly) answered the call.

“Like an idiot, I forgot to get my passport before I removed the stairs from my townhouse,” Dr. Chynn revealed. He doesn’t explain why the stairs were removed, but that alone is enough to make people scratch their heads. Chynn had an upcoming cruise to the Caribbean, and he couldn’t travel without his passport, which was located in a safe on another floor of the house.

“I had to hire a couple of professional climbing instructors to retrieve the passport a couple floors up,” he said. Chynn was so desperate he had put up a Craigslist listing. His post revealed that he was supposed to have a new staircase shipped overseas, but the person responsible for shipping it had been met with delays. Now, he needed two climbers who could do the heist-like job in the townhouse before his cruise.

“You ready to go Mission Impossible a dude’s house?” Troxell jokingly suggested to his other friend, Danny, who agreed to do the climb with him. When they got to the townhouse, the climb was expectedly difficult. The passport was located two floors away from the second floor of the house. Essentially, the passport was at the fourth floor of the home.

Regardless, Troxell and his friend got to work.

The gameplan of the Craigslist climbers

They rigged an anchor from the stairwell to the gate of the house for support. Then, they placed a ladder below the ledge beside the pit—where the stairwell used to be. It was high-stakes, and Troxell could have easily fallen off one floor given his starting position.

But he put his gloves on and pushed through. Slowly, he was able to pull himself up the third floor of the house. When he got to the third level, they tied another anchor point between the two windows. Then, he hoisted his friend up. Then, they repeated the same process and got up to the fourth floor of the house.

Although nerve-wracking, Troxell and his friend were not caught slipping on camera. On the fourth floor, Troxell gained access to Chynn’s bedroom, where his passport was stashed away.

“Now I’m collecting his backpack, his overnight bag, his international driver’s license,” Troxell said. It wasn’t just the passport he got, but also the other items Chynn and his wife needed for the trip. After cracking the safe open, it was mission accomplished for the climbing duo.

Rewards for the mission

“Once we’re down, he wants to have a celebratory drink. I don’t drink, so Danny does all the social heavy lifting,” Troxell explained. Danny was shown shaking a spiked whipped cream bottle.

“It’s pretty alcoholic, by the way, because the first time I did it, I was like, ‘Whoa,'” Chynn warned Danny. It was too late by then, since he was already squeezing the whipped concoction into his mouth. But aside from an impending hangover, Troxell and Danny were both rewarded with $150 for the climb—which is fair for such an odd job.

But interestingly, they also got a discount for Lasik eye surgery, which isn’t a surprise since Dr. Chynn is an eye doctor. Craigslist never runs out of odd jobs, but past the ten dubious listings, there’s a possibility of a great reward somewhere out there.

(featured images: Wilder Troxell)

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