Kenneth Kenji Stine
Introduction
Kenneth Kenji Stine is a 50-year-old unhoused man from Berkeley, California, who was arrested in September 2026 after security footage appeared to show him climbing over a locked gate and following a UC Berkeley student into her off-campus apartment building — an episode that drew millions of views on TikTok . The student, Cal undergraduate Eden Winograd, said Stine ran toward her as she walked her dog on the evening of September 15, 2026, then scaled her building’s security gate seconds after she shut it; she reached an elevator and got home unharmed . Stine was booked on an unrelated felony warrant, not the encounter itself, while prosecutors weigh whether the incident warrants new charges .
Background Information
Little verified biographical information exists about Stine beyond what police and court records supplied in coverage of the case. He is 50 years old and was described in the New York Post’s reporting as a homeless man in Berkeley; police said he had been sleeping in the garage of Winograd’s apartment building, and that security had already kicked him out of the garage once before the September 15 episode . Stine has a single Alameda County criminal case — a misdemeanor charge of disobeying a court order from a June 2026 UC Berkeley police arrest — but an “extensive” broader arrest history across the Bay Area, including a felony arson charge filed earlier in 2026 after a fire at a Menlo Park coffee shop and a prior arson conviction in Contra Costa County, The Berkeley Scanner reported, citing court records . His online footprint, amplified after the video went viral, is unusual: he has written on Facebook about “hearing voices in my head continuously,” attributing them in 2021 to what he claimed was a secret DARPA mind-reading program, and identifies himself as “God” in a video on his YouTube channel .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Allegations. The claims in this section are allegations from the account Eden Winograd gave police and repeated in news coverage and her own social-media posts, and from security footage of the September 15, 2026 incident. Apart from a misdemeanor trespassing classification by police, the conduct described has never been admitted by Kenneth Kenji Stine, never criminally charged, and never adjudicated in court; police said they could establish only that he ran in Winograd’s direction before entering the building, not that he chased her.
Winograd told police she was walking her dog on Berkeley Way at about 8 p.m. on September 15, 2026, when an unhoused man “ran toward her”; seconds after she closed the security gate leading to her building’s lobby, the man climbed over it and came inside, though she made it into the elevator and reached her apartment . “My heart sank. I was out of breath,” she told NBC Bay Area. “I don’t want to be chased and have to watch someone claw their way up a wall to get into where I live” . Police took more than an hour to respond, saying officers were occupied with other priority incidents including a missing autistic child and a domestic violence call, and could not find the man — who, unknown to them, was asleep in the building’s garage, Winograd later said on TikTok .
Reviewing the security footage, police classified the case as misdemeanor trespassing; officers detained and identified Stine the next night after Winograd spotted him nearby, but released him because California law bars arrest for most misdemeanors the officer did not witness, forwarding the case to the Alameda County district attorney’s office instead . A police spokesman said a stalking charge was not pursued because it requires harassment or a threat plus repeated conduct, “neither of which appeared to be present here” . Winograd posted an edited clip of the footage on TikTok — sped up in places, with a slowed-down moment appearing to show the man pulling an object from his pocket, set to dramatic music — where it drew more than 2 million views .
Public Reaction and Consequences
The viral clip turned a neighborhood incident into a national flashpoint. Winograd’s followers pressed police on why no arrest followed, and BPD spokesman Officer Byron White publicly defended the handling — “Having someone come into your apartment complex is alarming,” he said. “We want everybody to feel safe” . Winograd posted follow-up videos criticizing the police response and calling for changes to the law so such situations are taken more seriously: “You guys don’t do anything until it’s too late,” she said. “This happens too often to too many people” .
The consequence that followed, however, was not the one the internet demanded. On Thursday, September 17, Contra Costa County entered a felony warrant for Stine in an unrelated case alleging a violation of post-release community supervision, a form of supervised release similar to parole; Berkeley police began looking for him and found him lying on a sidewalk at Shattuck and Ashby avenues on Saturday, September 19, arresting him on the warrant and in connection with the misdemeanor trespassing case, according to booking records . The New York Post noted he was “finally hauled into jail Tuesday — but not for allegedly chasing her,” his booking photo, released September 22, framing the coverage .
Current Status
As of September 22, 2026, Stine is being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail due to the felony warrant, while the alleged trespassing violation carries $10,000 bail; he had not yet been charged in the new case at The Berkeley Scanner’s publication time, with a hearing set for Wednesday, September 23, at Wiley Manuel Courthouse in Oakland . The Alameda County district attorney’s office is deciding whether to add charges stemming from the apartment incident itself; Stine “is not currently jailed on new stalking or trespassing charges connected to Winograd,” the New York Post reported .
Impact on Their Career/Life
Stine, unknown outside Berkeley before the clip spread, is now publicly branded as the “Suspect” from one of TikTok’s most-viewed videos of the week, his booking photo splashed across national coverage; the pending district-attorney review of the apartment encounter will determine whether the viral episode converts into criminal charges or remains, formally, an unproven allegation against a man whose history includes a felony arson charge earlier in 2026 and a prior arson conviction . The case has also made him the face of a policy argument between a student body demanding tougher action and a police department explaining the statutory limits it says tied its hands .