Man knocked unconscious by falling mattress

A student was knocked unconscious when a mattress fell from a building in the middle of New York’s financial district. Jesse Scott Owen, 18,  was hit by a futon mattress near Wall Street on Lower Manhattan.

A witness says the mattress flew off the roof terrace of a nearby building and fell over 30 stories before hitting Mr Owen on the head. Mr Owen, said his sense of humor helped him overcome the neck and back pain he suffered from the futon mattress, which knocked him out cold on Broad St. at about 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday.

“This was the most absurd thing that ever happened to me,” he said. Owen, who moved to the city three weeks ago from Florida to attend King’s College in lower Manhattan, said he was on his way to a lecture when he suddenly lost consciousness.

“I woke up and people were putting me on the mattress,” he said. “I asked where the mattress came from and they said, ‘You were knocked out by it.’” The mattress may have fallen in windy weather from the rooftop spa of the Setai Wall Street at 40 Broad St. After the incident, passersby tended to Owen until emergency workers arrived.