BREAKING: Man Who Pushed Snowboarder Off Chairlift Arrested & Charged

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Thomas Proesel
Thomas Proesel

Last month, there were unconfirmed reports of a man pushing a snowboarder off a chairlift at Aspen Highlands.  The guy who was pushed off had a fierce facebook post.

Today, the Aspen Times is reporting that it is true and that the 31-year-old man who pushed the snowboarder off the Loge Peak chairlift at Aspen Highlands, CO was arrested and charged and appeared in District Court in Aspen, CO.

Thomas Proesel was charged with felony assault and misdemeanor reckless endangerment, according to court documents.

Aspen, Aspen Highlands, and Buttermilk, CO.
Aspen, Aspen Highlands, and Buttermilk, CO.

Thomas spent the past 3 weeks in a psychiatric hospital in Grand Junction, CO.

His bail was set at $10,000, paid, and Thomas was sent to a residential treatment facility in Tennessee.  Thomas is reportedly dealing with a serious mental illness.  The facility in Tennessee recommends that Thomas stay in their facility for 3 to 4 months of treatment.

Thomas is from Chicago and has lived in Aspen long enough to buy a $300,000 condo in Hunter Creek.

Authorities figured out who Thomas was via video cameras at Aspen Highlands and scanners that read his ski pass.

Seth's Facebook post.
Seth’s Facebook post.

The incident in question occurred on January 17th, 2016 when Thomas pushed snowboarder Seth Beckton off the Loge Peak chairlift at Aspen Highlands, CO after a comment the snowboarder made that he didn’t like.  According to Seth’s Facebook post, this is how the conversation went:

Seth:   “to get tits deep pow shots you just need to be on your edges.”

Thomas:   “are you laughing at me?”

Seth:  “Kind of…yes??

Thomas:  ” Well is this funny?”

he then proceeded to push/pull me off the chair. Luckily I fell 20-25′ into a fluffy pile of snow. So thankful that I was not hurt due to some asshole being offended by a non- offensive comment. Proceeded to get my turns in throughout the day on the lookout for the suspect without luck. 

Seth said that he was pushed off the chairlift at 9:30am on Jan. 17th, 2016 but he didn’t report it until the end of the day.  He was uninjured in the fall.

“Because I wasn’t hurt, I wasn’t super-outraged.  I didn’t want to let it ruin my day. I decided to continue on my way.” – Seth Beckton

Please don't push people off these things. It's incredible that Seth wasn't hurt. photo: getty images
Please don’t push people off these things. It’s incredible that Seth wasn’t hurt. photo: getty images

According the the booking sheet, Thomas is 6’2″, 220lbs.

Deputies identified Thomas via video and showed up at his house on Jan. 20th.  The deputy who spoke to Thomas said he was rambling about ““numerous conspiracies primarily in the Chicago area, and other unrelated, unintelligible topics,” according to his report.  Thomas spoke of  “the mob, about Chicago, about terrorists, about Mexicans and about fear of being in public,” the report states.

Deputies then took Thomas to a psychiatric hospital in Grand Junction, CO where he hads been until Thursday this week.

Aspen revoked Thomas’ ski pass on Jan. 22 “because his conduct may cause injury to another person,” according to a police report.


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3 thoughts on “BREAKING: Man Who Pushed Snowboarder Off Chairlift Arrested & Charged

  1. Its called douchebagitis. Lock that fkker up for a long ass time.
    He can get all the mental health help he needs for a long ass sentence in a proper mental health facility.
    Felony assault is no joke mentally ill or not. I hope he gets lots of visits fron nurse Ratchet.
    Glad victim was ok.

  2. as horrific as this event was charging people who are obviously mental at the time of the offense, and this guy is a documented case of crazy, is bullshit. Get them the help they need for fucks sake. Maybe if we had a decent healthcare system that addressed issues related to mental illness we would see less cases of unstable people doing crazy shit, such as pushing people off of chairlifts or shooting up schools or theaters.

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