On Thursday, April 12 between 2 and 4 a.m., Wittenberg English Professor D’Arcy Fallon was awakened by what she thought to be shifting furniture on her front porch. It was a windy night and she was sound asleep before realizing the mysterious sounds were getting louder and louder.
Fallon’s cell phone was downstairs charging in the kitchen at the time, so she only had one option to solving the mystery of the sounds coming from downstairs to investigate for herself. As she sleepily walked downstairs, she was disturbed to hear sounds of urination echoing from her kitchen.
Fallon called out, “Who’s there? What’s going on? Who is that?” as she saw a male figure standing, backlit in her kitchen. As she clutched the blanket she brought with her downstairs, she worked hard to sternly warn the intruder to get out by saying, “You better get out of here right now or I’m calling the cops!”
This is when Fallon realized that her unwelcome visitor was disoriented and couldn’t follow the directions to exit her front door which was ajar.
As he finally left, Fallon locked and chained the front door. She then watched the intruder stumble across the front lawn and head west towards the park. Half asleep and exhausted, the professor decided to return to bed after the incident which didn’t even seem real.
At about 7:30 a.m. the next morning, she went to check the living room and the rest of the downstairs. It appeared as though someone was sleeping on her couch: pillows were scatters, blankets were wrinkled and misplaced. Fallon also found a pair of men’s shoes by the couch, size 12 Sonoma black wingtips.
She decided to call the Wittenberg police and an officer came right over and filed a report. Fallon gave him the shoes and was embarrassed to admit the door hadn’t been locked the night before. Nothing like this had happened to the professor in the past, as she has lived in the same house behind Ferncliff Hall for the about three years.
Fallon is not sure who it was, but assumes it was a student who was intoxicated and got lost, stumbling into her house. The professor noted that earlier that night it was “Witt Wednesday.”
