Police accuse Chuck Moeser, 70, of being "extremely cool"

Local Crime & Public Safety

Police accuse grandfather, 70, in BASE jumps from area skyscrapers

By Justin Jouvenal
Today at 2:27 p.m. EST

Two years ago, authorities named a then 68-year-old grandfather as the prime suspect in several brazen BASE jumps from some of the D.C. area’s tallest buildings.

The investigation into Chuck Moeser, a formerly elite and flamboyant local runner, was featured in a front-page story in The Washington Post. But the statute of limitations for trespassing expired as Fairfax County police were building a case. If Moeser was the jumper, he got away with as many as six leaps, including a harrowing 32-story plunge over evening traffic.

Despite the police probe and public exposure, police think Moeser, now 70, returned to the Tysons area to parachute again. Fairfax County police arrested him Monday night in connection with leaps from buildings on the Capital One campus near the McLean Metro station that occurred this year and last.

Moeser has been charged with three counts of misdemeanor trespassing. Police said his son Lee Moeser has also been charged in connection with a jump last year. BASE jumping, which involves parachute leaps from tall structures, is not a crime in Virginia, but authorities try to discourage it because it often results in fatalities and can injure people below.

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Moeser was interviewed by The Washington Post in 1987 before competing in the Marine Corps Marathon. He said that as a young man he was drafted into the Army, where military records show he received training as a Ranger, parachutist and military skier in the early 1970s.

“That was probably the best thing that ever happened to me,” Moeser told The Post of being drafted. “I’d have either been the president of a company or in jail by now. I had a lot of extra energy. That’s probably the reason I run so much now.”

Now, he could go to jail. Each trespassing charge carries a fine and a sentence of up to 12 months behind bars.

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By Justin Jouvenal
Justin Jouvenal covers courts and policing in Fairfax County and across the nation. He joined The Post in 2009. Twitter https://twitter.com/jjouvenal