A UC Berkeley student is calling for urgent security changes after a frightening encounter with a man who allegedly followed her to her doorstep—then was released while prosecutors delayed action on the case.
Chilling surveillance footage shows Eden Winograd rushing through a locked security gate as she tried to escape a man she says was pursuing her. Moments later, the man climbed over the barrier and entered her apartment complex.
The incident has left Winograd questioning whether she can feel safe even steps from her own home.
“I don’t want to be chased the second I step out of my apartment,” she told NBC Bay Area.
The alarming encounter occurred around 8 p.m. on September 15 in Berkeley, California, as Winograd, a junior at Cal, walked her dog near her off-campus apartment.
Winograd told police that a man approached her and began making unusual gestures. He then suddenly ran toward her, causing her to retreat and hurry back to her building.
She reached the apartment complex, used her access system to pass through the security gate and pulled it closed behind her. The barrier, however, did not stop the man following her.
When Winograd looked back, surveillance video showed the man scaling the locked gate moments later and entering the complex behind her.
Junior Eden Winograd is captured on security footage returning from walking her dog on September 15 as a man allegedly follows and chases her toward her off-campus apartment
Seconds after entering the apartment complex, the man is seen climbing over the front gate and following her inside
The man appears to be holding what police later determined was likely a barbecue lighter
Reflecting on the traumatic incident, she said, “You guys don’t do anything until it’s too late,” adding, “This happens too often to too many people”
Winograd then sprinted toward the elevator, terrified that the man might see which apartment she entered.
“Those seconds in the elevator felt like hours in the moment,” she told the Los Angeles Times. She ultimately reached her apartment safely.
Video also showed the man removing a long object from his pocket. Police initially investigated whether it might be a bladed weapon, but later concluded it was probably a barbecue lighter.
Winograd called Berkeley police at approximately 8:04 p.m., but officers could not find the man. The department said its officers were responding to other high-priority calls, including a domestic-violence report and a case involving an at-risk missing person.
The next evening, Winograd spotted the man again near her apartment and contacted police. Officers arrived and located him.
They identified him as 50-year-old Kenneth Kenji Stine, who was unhoused. Officers detained him while questioning him about the previous night’s encounter.
To Winograd’s shock, however, officers released him soon afterward, saying they were acting in accordance with California law.
“About two minutes into the conversation, they took the handcuffs off, and came back to me and said, we can’t do anything,” she said.
After making it over the gate, the man continues to follow her after she made her way to an elevator out of sight
Kenneth Kenji Stine, 50, who was described by police as unhoused was arrested on September 19, after Berkeley police found him and discovered an unrelated outstanding warrant, three days after officers had detained him over the alleged confrontation with Winograd and then released him, citing insufficient evidence for a stalking charge
Berkeley police said the alleged trespassing was a misdemeanor, and officers generally cannot make a warrantless arrest for a misdemeanor they did not personally witness.
Because the alleged trespassing had occurred the previous night, officers said they could not arrest Stine based solely on that offense. Instead, they forwarded the case to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office for review.
What made the situation even more troubling for Winograd was that officers had now identified the man, and public records show he had a significant criminal history.
According to court records and local reporting, Stine had been arrested on the UC Berkeley campus in June over an alleged restraining-order violation involving a university employee.
However, days later, on September 19, he was arrested in connection with an alleged fire at a Menlo Park coffee shop and subsequently faced a felony arson charge in San Mateo County.
Reporting also found that he had a prior felony arson conviction in Contra Costa County, along with convictions for vandalism, battery and violating probation.
Stine also has a bizarre online footprint. He has previously taken to Facebook about ‘hearing voices in my head continuously,’ which he attributed in 2021 to what he claimed was a secret DARPA program capable of reading and transmitting people’s thoughts.
Yet none of that allowed Berkeley officers to simply arrest him for the September 15 misdemeanor. The legal restriction applied to the specific offense they were investigating: officers had not witnessed the alleged trespassing themselves.
Berkeley police located Stine again Tuesday after they discovered the outstanding warrant and booked him into jail. However, he is not currently jailed on new stalking or trespassing charges connected to Winograd and will remain held on the outstanding warrant while the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office decides whether to add charges stemming from the apartment incident
The case changed several days later when a separate felony warrant was entered for Stine in Contra Costa County for an alleged violation of post-release community supervision.
Berkeley officers subsequently located him on Tuesday and arrested him on that warrant. He was booked into Santa Rita Jail, where he is now being held without bail because of the felony warrant.
However, he is not currently jailed on new stalking or trespassing charges connected to Winograd but will remain held on the outstanding warrant while the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office decides whether to add charges stemming from the apartment incident
Winograd said she was shocked by the outcome. Speaking out on social media, she hopes her experience will spark broader discussions about public safety and legal protections for residents.
‘We deserve stricter laws so that things like this aren’t just allowed to happen legally,’ she said.
