Kind of a bizarre story and we'll have to wait until more details come out, but offensive lineman Jason Pinkston's house was robbed - and a former player was present and questioned about it.
The Post-Gazette has the news that former player, Aaron Smith, was present and will be questioned:
Pinkston, who snuck out of the house and went to a nearby restaurant for help was, as you can imagine, trying to get help there as soon as possible. The manager, Rob Wallace, overheard the 911 conversation:
"The 911 operator was trying to get all the pertinent information so police officers weren't going in there totally blind, and he was just like, ‘Don't you freaking understand? My cousin's in there,’" said Wallace.
He also added:
"He came running in," said the manager of Papa Davinci’s. "He was sweating and said, ‘Some guys just pulled guns on us.’"
Apparently the incident wasn't enough to throw Pinkston from his regular routine. He went on to practice on Tuesday as normal, in preparation for the BBVA Compass Bowl on January 8th.
They apparently got away with $200 and a watch , but no one was hurt, so that's the good news.
Now for the obvious question - Would you try to rob from a 6'4" 300-pound offensive lineman? Even with a weapon?
Yeah, me neither.
Seriously, though, having lived in Oakland for six years while in school and two after I graduated, I've heard of this type of stuff. All the years I lived there, I never had any issues, but have heard of situations. Other parts of South Oakland away from the main campus could definitely be lit better and it's pretty clear that Pitt needs to take more action there. Having more campus police scattered throughout the off-campus part of Oakland would be a big first step. There are campus police in Oakland, but I remember them being more huddled up towards the Towers and Fifth/Forbes Ave. Pitt has a big population of students living several blocks off campus and you can't simply police the campus part of Oakland.
Just my two cents.