break in State College Pa

[security1978]

Man charged with trying to enter home

STATE COLLEGE — A College Township man faces criminal charges after he ignored an apparent warning shot while entering a State College home early Saturday morning.

According to State College police, Nathan Wagner, 21, of 709 W. Cherry Lane, had broken a door window of a North Atherton Street residence about 2:30 a.m. and was trying to come inside when the homeowner confronted him with a shotgun and told him to leave.

Wagner persisted, police said, and the homeowner fired a shot into an interior wall. Police, called by the homeowner’s wife before the shot, said they arrived to find Wagner still trying to open the door.

As Wagner was taken into custody, police said, he appeared intoxicated, registered a blood-alcohol content of .22 and told officers he thought he was at a friend’s house for a party.

Arraigned before District Justice Carmine Prestia, Wagner was charged with criminal trespass, criminal mischief, public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. He was jailed at the Centre County Correctional Facility on $10,000 bail

[Zef_66]

Sounds like just a case of a drunken, confused college student.

[ithinkimamedic]

Sounds like just a case of a drunken, confused college student.

Yes. This is a problem that seems to either be on the rise or I'm just seeing/hearing about it more often. If I remember right during the last semester there were 3 or 4 instances where people awoke to find students sleeping in their houses. This does not include the plethora of incidents where someone is banging on the door/house and yelling trying to gain access to somewhere they are not suppose to be going. This is typically cited as "I thought this was my buddies house" or "I thought the party was here and I was just trying to get in".

When I've spoken to some of our local officers we all agreed that we were surprised that this hadn't happened before and that it has taken this long. I was going to post something about it the night that it happened but it had not hit the news media and I chose not to since I didn't know what information was being released.

Crazy world we live in here in ol' "Happy Valley"

[sgt7546]

It's a shame this homeowner had to ruin an interior wall to fend off a drunken felon.

[rspowers]

That happened to my wife when she was home alone. around 10pm a drunk 20yr old tried to break in. He actually busted the storm doors and went into our basement and was trying to come in through the basement door into the house which was bolted, so he couldnt. He was yelling that he was trapped in the basement and didnt know where he was. since the police station is 1 block from house, they were there in 30seconds. The guy didnt even know his name, and when he woke up in jail, had no idea how he got there. He got 9 months in jail for breaking and entering, underage, tresspassing, and one other thing... And after all of that, my wife still refuses to learn to handle/use a gun.

I have 2 good friends who have woken up in others houses and in jail for the same thing. They just get way too drunk and have no idea where they are.

[Mity2]

If the someone shot the drunk, bangin and screamin, will that be a justifiable SD?

[ithinkimamedic]

If the someone shot the drunk, bangin and screamin, will that be a justifiable SD?

That's a little to vague to be able to make a decision IMHO.

[Mity2]

That's a little to vague to be able to make a decision IMHO.

yeah after I posted it, I got thinking that its hard to make that dicision.

I guess ceiling is much MUCH cheaper alternative then shooting drunken punk if you could help it

[arrrrgh15]

I'm kinda glad (for them) that they called 911 and just gave him a warning shot.

Had they shot him, the parents of the kid would have been all over the national news saying what a good boy he was, how he never did anything wrong, and how these crazed lunatics with guns shot their boy over a simple misunderstanding. And a Brady supporter would spew some rhetoric about why guns, even in the hands of homeowners trying to defend themselves, are dangerous and should be banned.

Well, if they're not breaking into houses by mistake they're walking out into traffic and getting run over.