As the first “real” Halloween after quarantine, State College residents certainly had big plans for the night of the 31st, but some of those plans were hindered when Penn State faculty and students got an alert about the armed robbery downtown at 152 North Atherton St. that afternoon. 

The robbery occurred at the Fullington bus station downtown around 2:50 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 31. The suspect reportedly hit the clerk with his gun, and the clerk was sent to Mount Nittany Medical to be treated afterward.

Because of the robbery’s close proximity to the Penn State campus, the university issued an alert to all faculty and students informing them of the incident. With this knowledge, many were forced to rethink their plans for the night.

Freshman Nusaibah Nubah, who lives downtown, was forced to reconsider her plan to go trick or treating with her friends when her sister got the notice from Penn State. 

“[My sister] told me immediately that I wasn’t allowed to go out,” Nubah said. “[She] told me that ‘you can’t go there unless I get a clear instruction that everything is safe,’” which is how many families in the area felt. 

In the end, trick or treating was never canceled, and later on, Penn State released an update that said there was “no evidence the suspect is still in the area.”

Thus Nubah, and others, were able to go trick or treating. She might’ve been a little late, but she was still able to go trick or treating with her friends. 

Despite the fact that Penn State said it was clear, many noticed a lack of trick-or-treaters that night. For whatever reason, this year might not quite have been back to “normal,” but at the very least, people have extra candy, and there’s hope that next year things will go back to the way it was pre-COVID.