College Student Chased into Off-Campus Apartment by Homeless Man (Video)

A UC Berkeley student says she was chased into her off-campus apartment complex by a man who then climbed over a locked gate and followed her inside — a frightening encounter captured on surveillance video.

Eden Winograd, a junior at the university, told NBC Bay Area that the incident happened around 8 p.m. Tuesday while she was returning from walking her dog near her apartment.

Winograd said she recognized the man from a few days earlier and became uneasy when she noticed him watching her.

She crossed the street and began walking faster.

Then, she said, she heard footsteps pounding behind her.

Winograd hurried to the entrance of her building, buzzed herself through the gate and closed it behind her.

But seconds later, she heard metal clanging.

When she looked back, the man was climbing over the gate.

Surveillance footage later released by Berkeley police shows the man scaling the entrance and continuing in Winograd’s direction while carrying an object in his hand.

WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW:

Initial reports suggested the object might have been a knife, but investigators later said it was most likely a barbecue lighter.

Winograd managed to reach an elevator with her dog and call police before the man caught up with her.

“My heart sank,” she told NBC Bay Area, describing herself as out of breath with her heart pounding after the encounter.

The surveillance footage can be seen in NBC Bay Area’s original report.

Winograd later posted video of the incident to TikTok, where it quickly drew hundreds of thousands of views. NBC Bay Area reported Friday that the clip had already been viewed more than 858,000 times.

Police located the same man the following day after receiving another call about someone lying on a sidewalk in the area.

Officers detained the 50-year-old and confirmed he was the person involved in the earlier trespassing incident, according to police.

He was not arrested at the time.

Instead, Berkeley police submitted the case to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office for review, meaning prosecutors will determine whether the available evidence supports criminal charges.

Police have not publicly released the man’s name.

Authorities said he was experiencing homelessness, but that fact alone does not explain why he allegedly followed Winograd or climbed into her apartment complex. Police have not announced a motive.

Winograd said the experience has left her shaken regardless of what the man was carrying.

She told NBC Bay Area that she does not want to feel she could be chased simply for stepping outside her apartment or have someone climb over a wall into the place where she lives.

The encounter comes amid a broader debate over homelessness, public safety and housing in Berkeley, though the city’s own data shows the picture is more complicated than simply describing the problem as worsening.

Berkeley’s 2024 Point-in-Time count recorded 844 people experiencing homelessness on a single night, including 445 who were unsheltered. That was down from 1,057 total people experiencing homelessness in 2022, while the unsheltered population fell by about 45%.

The city has also expanded shelter and interim housing capacity in recent years, while acknowledging that hundreds of people still remain without permanent housing.

For Winograd, however, the larger policy debate is secondary to what happened outside her home.