Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Brooklyn Man Sues City Because He Was Injured Getting In Touch With His Inner Child
By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 30, 2014
Modified Mar 30, 2014
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 30, 2014
Modified Mar 30, 2014
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
We live in a city that has begun to infantilize adults in an effort to get them to pay attention to their health, whether that means opening adult playgrounds or offering adult recess classes. But eventually, this back-to-the-schoolyard attitude was going to lead to some casualties—and the first may be Brooklyn resident Jonathan Stock, a personal trainer who is suing the city after he injured himself falling from a boulder in a Manhattan park. "Just because I’m an adult doesn’t mean I don’t get to explore the world, too," said the adult who climbed onto a rock in a park and made a boo-boo on his bod and now expects the city to pay for his folly.
Stock, 32, was hanging out in Hudson River Park last June with friends when the allure of the rock formation became too much to resist. Despite it not being an adult playground, or even a children's playground, Stock decided to take things to the limit (the personal trainers' oath maintains that taking things to the limit and/or the max is expected at all times) and scale the summit of the towering, um, 10-foot-tall rock.
"I ran and jumped it, and I pretty much knew exactly what happened right away. I tried to stand up and fell back down on my face completely," he told the Post. Stock ended up having surgery on his Achilles heel, and was forced to stay indoors for weeks, missing out on precious summer hours of pushing the boundaries of polite society through physical endurance and feats.
Alas, Stock was seduced and abandoned by a sweet slab of granite. "It just invites you or anybody with any athletic sense to give it a try,” said his attorney, Andrew Spinnell. Stock is seeking unspecified damages, although he might be better served channeling his energies toward a middle school-level climbing class.
Tagged
boo-boos
brooklyn
exercise
Hudson River Park
Jonathan Stock
lawsuit
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Being reigning champions is weird for Knicks fans. We could get used to this.
Seeing high hopes dashed had become so routine, it was part of our identity. This year feels different.
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Oct 17, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. ET
Tompkins Square Park is getting a makeover. Some say it's too much.
Some regulars at the East Village park want to preserve its not-so-fancy offerings.
By
Willow Higgins
News
Tompkins Square Park is getting a makeover. Some say it's too much.
Some regulars at the East Village park want to preserve its not-so-fancy offerings.
By
Willow Higgins
Deer are all over New Jersey roads looking for sex, state officials warn
By
Rosemary Misdary
Man messaged 'I got straight poison' before giving NYC college students fentanyl, feds say
By
Samantha Max
Inside the plan to fix the nearly collapsed Pfizer Building, 1/64th of an inch at a time
By
David Brand
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .