Workers from Northwestern’s Facilities Management were met with enthusiastic applause from student bystanders as the crew successfully hoisted a lifeguard chair off the roof of Bobb Hall Thursday afternoon.

The captured object apparently had been removed from its location, somewhere on North Beach, early Thursday morning.

According to Weinberg freshman and Bobb resident Monica Fershtman, the prank — masterminded by a group of students — took shape around 1:45 a.m.

“I was in the lounge studying, and I saw a group of kids climb out the window,” she said. “They attached (a rope) somewhere on the side of the building. There were a bunch (of people) on top of the roof and a bunch at the bottom, and they just reeled it up.”

Chatter among student spectators suggests that there were about 10 students involved in the stunt.

Paul Wang, a McCormick freshman, said he heard abnormally loud activity during the wee hours of the morning.

“This is what kept me up until 2 or 3 in the morning,” Wang said.

Communication freshman Jessie Kaufman and Education freshman Jill Bloom noticed the chair on their way to class.

“It was hilarious,” Kaufman said. “We were like, ‘Oh look, there’s a chair on the roof.”

Later that afternoon, as Facilities Management worked to dismount the chair from the roof, Kaufman, Bloom and some fellow students sat in the front lawn of Bobb to view the festivities.

“We think there’s a freshman snitch,” Bloom said. “Some kid wearing a 2008 shirt was talking to the police, and they checked his WildCARD.”

University Police responded to the scene no later than 3:15 p.m., followed closely by Facilities Management.

Rod Gregor, a lead carpenter for Facilities Management, rode up to the roof on a large crane, fastened the chair to it with a rope and lowered it to the ground at about 4:15 p.m.

Although Facilities Management workers have “seen everything,” Gregor said, the lifeguard chair on top of Bobb was unique.

“This is something new,” he said, adding that he would have liked to see how the students got the chair on the roof.

The chair would most likely be returned to the Sports Pavilion and Aquatics Center, where it belonged, workers said.

But students like Wang said they’ve heard that another lifeguard chair is floating around campus.

“I heard there was one at The Rock too,” Wang said.

Reach Kristyn Schiavone at [email protected].