BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Birmingham police said they've been unable to confirm reports that someone parachuted off the top of one of the city's decaying high-rise buildings early today.

Police spokesman Sgt. Johnny Williams Jr. said the department received reports sometime after midnight that someone jumped off the old Cabana Hotel, a 19-story vacant structure at Second Avenue North and 17th Street, and parachuted to the ground below.

"We were told someone jumped off with a parachute and then was scooped up by a car," Williams said.

If it happened, the practice is known as BASE jumping, a sport of using a parachute to jump from fixed objects. BASE is an acronym that stands for the four categories of objects from which one can jump: building, antenna, span, and earth.

Officers did respond to the call, and looked for the mystery jumper. "We haven't had a report of a body found anywhere," Williams said, "and there is no evidence of it actually happening."

Asked if it was against the law, Williams chuckled and said, "You just can't go around jumping off buildings anytime you feel like it."