A suicidal teen got his timeline extended when Port Authority cops used Facebook to keep him from leaping off the George Washington Bridge.
“I’m thinking about jumping,” the 18-year-old New Jersey youth wrote on his Facebook page, along with a picture of the Hudson River span.
A friend who spotted the alarming post called cops in Paterson, NJ, who in turn alerted the Port Authority Police Department about 1 p.m. Tuesday, according to the PAPD.
After checking the would-be jumper’s Facebook page and downloading his picture, Port Authority cops scoured the bridge and tried to find him by pinging his cellphone.
But when they came up empty, Lt. Thomas Michaels reached out via the social network.
Although the young man initially ignored Michaels’ Facebook message urging him to call, his friends — along with PAPD Sgt. Nadine Rehm and Officer Laverne Watson — sent other messages urging him to reconsider.
“Call Lt. Michaels,” one Facebook post said.
“Just call the lieutenant,” said another post.
After about two hours, the troubled teen — a college student whose Facebook photos show him wearing a marijuana-leaf necklace, blowing smoke and holding bottles of booze — finally called Michaels and said he was on a bus in Paterson.
He told Michaels he was “having housing issues” and “was on the verge of homelessness.”
The teen eventually admitted, “I really wasn’t thinking clearly,” and Michaels convinced him to meet with cops.
“I said to him, ‘We have to see you face-to-face and make sure you’re OK,’ ” Michaels said.
After getting off the bus near Paterson City Hall, the teen was taken to a hospital for evaluation.
The incident marked a stark departure from the 2010 suicide of Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi, 18, who plunged from the George Washington Bridge after changing his Facebook status to “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry.”
Michaels, 44, said that while Port Authority cops had previously used social media to verify threats, Tuesday’s incident marked the first time it helped them stop a suicide.
“We’ll definitely be using this again because I mean, it worked,” Michaels said.