Elevator surfing

[8] Although the first instances of elevator surfing are unknown, by 1990, the activity was noted for its popularity among children in New York City public housing projects.

Walter had been a member of the "Little Tough Guys", a group of roughly thirty-five children known for elevator surfing, and police had tried to warn him of the dangers of the activity.

[15][2] In March 1991, twenty-three-year-old Indiana State University aviation student Michael Deliduka and his peers used a coat hanger to wedge open elevator doors after a night of drinking.

[17][18] In September 1992, Southern Methodist University student and athlete Michael Schlosser slipped while hanging onto the bottom of an elevator, falling thirty feet through the shaft and succumbing to blunt force head injuries.

Another resident who had been in the elevator at the time of the accident reported a sudden shaking followed by a halt and heard Nolan's friends screaming and a breathing sound that subsequently stopped.

[21] In December 2006, eighteen-year-old Jonathan Figueroa was found dead at the bottom of an elevator shaft in a Bedford Stuyvesant apartment complex.