2008 Woodie Awards
Student fends off intruder
By Rachel Seeman
Rocket News Editor
Issue date: 2/3/06 Section: News
An unidentified white male unlawfully entered the apartment of a female Slippery Rock resident at 645 South Main St. between 2:30 and 3 a.m. on January 29.
The resident, Vinette Kester, a junior physical education major, was home at the time the man arrived at her apartment.
Kester, a former CA and Student Government Association senator of Founders Hall, said she had just gone to bed when she heard someone walk up the wooden steps to her front door. She said she heard the exterior glass door open, followed by the sound of someone tampering with her apartment door.
Kester said she got out of bed thinking it was a friend who needed something.
By the time Kester got to the kitchen, the unidentified man jumped on the closed-in patio roof outside the kitchen window.
"I got really scared and grabbed a frying pan on the stove," Kester said.
The kitchen window was left unlocked. The man realized this and opened it and started crawling through when Kester hit him on the head with the pan.
"When I hit him, he fell down, stood up and started staggering and then fell off my roof," she said.
He ran away when he hit the ground.
"I didn't get a real good look at him." she said, "I could see he was a white male. He wasn't a big man, about my size."
Kester is a thin brunette standing about 5 feet 8 inches tall.
Kester said she did not call the police because she was confident he was not going to return.
"It was stupid, I should have called them right then," she said.
In the morning, Kester noticed a knife on the roof the intruder had left behind. She immediately called the police.
She proceeded to call the University Police because they were the closest. They told her that she was out of their jurisdiction.
"We would refer them to the proper jurisdiction (when we receive phone calls out of our jurisdiction)," Chief Robert J. Christy said.
Under the Municipal Police Jurisdiction Act, if the Borough Police do not have police officers on duty, the call becomes the jurisdiction of the state police. The University Police would assist if they were asked, Christy said.
Kester called 911 and Pennsylvania State Trooper John Gray responded to her call.
The state police took the knife as evidence and told her they would check local hospitals for anyone that would have checked in with head injuries. She has not heard anything yet.
Kester has not been back to her apartment since.
"I've been all over the place staying with friends," she said. "I just get a creepy feeling when I'm sitting there by myself, especially when it's dark."
She has no roommate.
"I never ever thought something like this would ever happen to me," Kester said. "Now I'm cautious when I'm alone by myself at night."
The resident, Vinette Kester, a junior physical education major, was home at the time the man arrived at her apartment.
Kester, a former CA and Student Government Association senator of Founders Hall, said she had just gone to bed when she heard someone walk up the wooden steps to her front door. She said she heard the exterior glass door open, followed by the sound of someone tampering with her apartment door.
Kester said she got out of bed thinking it was a friend who needed something.
By the time Kester got to the kitchen, the unidentified man jumped on the closed-in patio roof outside the kitchen window.
"I got really scared and grabbed a frying pan on the stove," Kester said.
The kitchen window was left unlocked. The man realized this and opened it and started crawling through when Kester hit him on the head with the pan.
"When I hit him, he fell down, stood up and started staggering and then fell off my roof," she said.
He ran away when he hit the ground.
"I didn't get a real good look at him." she said, "I could see he was a white male. He wasn't a big man, about my size."
Kester is a thin brunette standing about 5 feet 8 inches tall.
Kester said she did not call the police because she was confident he was not going to return.
"It was stupid, I should have called them right then," she said.
In the morning, Kester noticed a knife on the roof the intruder had left behind. She immediately called the police.
She proceeded to call the University Police because they were the closest. They told her that she was out of their jurisdiction.
"We would refer them to the proper jurisdiction (when we receive phone calls out of our jurisdiction)," Chief Robert J. Christy said.
Under the Municipal Police Jurisdiction Act, if the Borough Police do not have police officers on duty, the call becomes the jurisdiction of the state police. The University Police would assist if they were asked, Christy said.
Kester called 911 and Pennsylvania State Trooper John Gray responded to her call.
The state police took the knife as evidence and told her they would check local hospitals for anyone that would have checked in with head injuries. She has not heard anything yet.
Kester has not been back to her apartment since.
"I've been all over the place staying with friends," she said. "I just get a creepy feeling when I'm sitting there by myself, especially when it's dark."
She has no roommate.
"I never ever thought something like this would ever happen to me," Kester said. "Now I'm cautious when I'm alone by myself at night."
