Pam the Bird agitator arrested after hours-long stand-off on Bolte Bridge

A nine-hour standoff at the Bolte Bridge has ended after police arrested a man who allegedly climbed one of its concrete pillars and spray-painted a giant Pam the Bird-style graffiti tag onto it.

Police said they arrested a 22-year-old Yarraville man about 11am Tuesday.

The young man, clad head-to-toe in black, allegedly climbed up one of the concrete pillars flanking the bridge about 3am on Tuesday and spray-painted a giant Pam the Bird-style graffiti tag onto it.

Police say the man refused to follow their directions to come down. While he was on the bridge, he posted regular updates to an Instagram account with the biography “#notcomingdown”. The account now has 23,000 followers.

In the hours that followed, the man claimed he would not emerge until the taxes were lowered (never specifying which taxes), before adding a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to his list of demands.

His final video, posted about 10.30am, showed him recording himself doing a dance with his hands on his knees.

In earlier videos, the man appeared to be atop the bridge’s eastern concrete stack, looking down on several emergency vehicles and the road. Another video showed the man gleefully swinging his feet up and down while sitting on the pillar, soundtracked by Lesley Gore’s Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows.

The alleged trespasser also wrote, “Might have a quick nap” and “Wouldn’t mind a blankey, it’s kind of cold”.

One inbound lane of the Bolte Bridge was closed as authorities tried to get him down. Police said they were called to the scene around 3am after reports of a man loitering near the tower. By the time they arrived, he was allegedly abseiling down it.

“A significant number of police resources were deployed to the location, including uniform members, highway patrol officers, Critical Incident Response Team, Search & Rescue and Water Police,” police said in their statement.

“The police priority was to get the man down safely.”

In an update posted shortly after 9am, the man, who has brown eyes and a yellow flower-like symbol on his balaclava, declared he was still “patiently” waiting for the sandwich, holding his phone with one hand and flashing a peace sign with the other.

Police said there was no threat to the public or road users, and also asked people to stop flying drones near the area.

It is understood that the man gained access at the base of the pillar, where a platform leading to a door and staircase can be seen.

The man accused of being behind the original Pam the Bird graffiti is awaiting trial on more than 200 charges that he caused $700,000 of damage by vandalising property across Melbourne.

Jack Gibson-Burrell pleaded not guilty and is on bail with conditions including that he lives in Geelong with his grandmother, comply with a nightly curfew and not possess abseiling or graffiti-related items. The identity of the Bolte Bridge intruder is unknown.

The mercury dropped to four degrees on Tuesday morning as fog smothered the top of the bridge’s 140-metre-high concrete pillars.

More to come.

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