Jamie Moelis
“Hi, my name is Jen Tarangelo and I live at the 4600 block of Knox Road. Someone just broke into my house.”
At approximately 4:30 am on Sunday, October 5 twenty-one year old Jennifer Tarangelo, a typically heavy sleeper, was awakened by the sound of her squeaky bedroom door opening. She figured it was probably just her crazy roommate Emily, who stayed out an extra hour partying than she and her other roommate Laura did.
“Hello?” said Jen. No one answered.
A little more awake now, Jen saw that the figure standing at her wooden bedroom door was not Emily. From the darkness all she could make out was a short, African American individual who she believes was a female. ‘She’ had long black cornrows and was wearing a thick black headband around her head.
As soon as Jen said hello, the person scattered and hid behind her door.
“Hello?” said Jen more firmly. No one answered.
Seconds later she heard the sound of prompt footsteps walking through her tiny living room, and the sound of a door closing. She knew now would be the perfect time to bolt through the living room, go down the stairs, and see if her sorority sister Laura knew what was going on. On any other night she would have gone next door to Nikki’s room, but Nikki was home for Yom Kippur.
Scared, anxious, and confused she ran through the living room and down the stairs to Laura’s room where she and her friend visiting from out of town were fast asleep.
“Laura, Laura,” said Jen. “Someone was just in our house, did Emily just get home?”
Laura, another typically heavy sleeper was very confused and was still half asleep. They decided to phone Emily, who lived on the top floor, to make sure that the person Jen had seen wasn’t her, coming home drunk.
“We called her and thankfully her phone was on loud,” said Laura. “She told us that she had gotten home over an hour ago. So I told her to lock her door, and by accident I said that someone was still in the house.”
Jen was now 99% sure they had an intruder. She dialed 9-11.
“Name and address,” said the police dispatcher.
“Hi, my name is Jen Tarangelo and I live at the 4600 block of Knox Road. Someone just broke into my house.”
The police dispatcher, probably a man in his early 30’s, stayed on the phone with her until the police arrived. They gave her strict instructions not to open the door until they said so. Within 3 minutes there was an aggressive bang on the white wooden front door.
“Do not open the door ma’am, do not open the door,” said the police dispatcher. “Ok…now you can open it.”
Two lean, tall police officers walked into the house and asked the girls to explain what happened. They then proceeded to check the entire house to make sure no one was still there, to see if there was any damage, and to see if anything was stolen.
Right away they could tell that someone broke in because there were black scratch marks on either side of the front door. The girls were positive that they double locked all the doors within the house, so the individual must have used some sort of device to break in. The police also noticed that the kitchen door was opened, so the perpetrator most likely entered through the front door and left through the kitchen door.
“Ninety percent of the time intruders don’t want to hurt you, they just want to steal your stuff,” said one of the officers. “They don’t want confrontation they just want your things.”
The officers explained how prevalent break-ins were in the area, especially because it’s a college town. People know that college kids live here and that a lot of students have MacBook’s, iPhones, iPads, and other expensive gadgets.
This made Jen feel a little better, but she was still frazzled and shaken up. Since this night, without fail, she wakes up at 4:30 am, can’t sleep alone, and can’t sleep with the lights off.