‘First, you scream’: Jake and Spike imagine being at Ballard gym when man fell through ceiling
May 20, 2026, 5:39 PM
After a man fell through the ceiling of an LA Fitness in Ballard last week, KIRO hosts Jake Skorheim and Spike O’Neill imagined what they would have done in that situation.
“First, you scream,” Spike said on “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio.
The man, in his 50s, was able to get into the ceiling of the gym before falling about 15 feet to the ground, KIRO 7 reported, citing the Seattle Police Department (SPD).
Witnesses said they saw the man go into the women’s and men’s bathrooms before he disappeared.
A gym patron told staff they thought someone was walking around in the ceiling after seeing a foot break through a ceiling tile, according to KIRO 7.
“Usually when I hear rustling in a roof, I always think to myself, ‘Oh, a squirrel got up there,'” Jake said. “In this case, you see something scurrying on top of the tiles of the roof, you’re kind of watching it, you’re tracing it with your eyes, boom, boom, boom. And then a foot goes through the ceiling — a man’s foot.”
RELATED STORIES
Ballard gym worker describes fall as a ‘cartoon’
Jake said he would call the management of the gym and the police. Spike had a different approach.
“I’d pummel somebody who came down through the roof of a restroom at the fitness center,” he said.
One of the workers at the front desk of the LA Fitness spoke with KIRO 7.
“It was like a cartoon,” the worker said. “It’s not every day you see someone fall through the ceiling, like he fell horizontally. It was crazy.”
“I mean, it does sound like a cartoon,” Jake responded.
Gym staff said the fall knocked the man unconscious. Officers believed the man was experiencing a mental health crisis, as he didn’t realize he had fallen through a ceiling, according to KIRO 7.
The media outlet reported that the man was taken to the hospital and is facing property destruction charges.
Watch the full discussion in the video above.
Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
