A Cal Poly student was arrested over the weekend for assault and attempted vehicle burglary. Police took electrical engineering freshman and former Cal Poly wrestler Matthew Wykoff into custody after he was apprehended by several citizens at the intersection of Kentucky and Stafford streets on April 22 at approximately 2:30 a.m., according to the San Luis Obispo Police Department.
Wykoff allegedly attempted to break into a car when the car’s owner, Andrew Chisamore, 20, walked by with two other people. Chisamore and the two other citizens saw Wykoff using his fist to break the driver’s side window and attempted to stop him, said Keith Storton of the San Luis Obispo Police Department.
“(Wykoff) happened to be in an area where the victim, the owner of the car, happened to see him breaking into his car,” Storton said.
Chisamore and the two other citizens wrestled Wykoff to the ground, according to police. Wykoff allegedly resisted, punching Chisamore several times, police said.
The noise alerted neighbors of the struggle, and they called the police.
Both Wykoff and Chisamore had minor facial injuries, according to the police report, and were treated at the scene before Wykoff was taken to San Luis Obispo County Jail.
Environmental engineering sophomore Pearce Swerdfeger, who met Wykoff at the beginning of the school year when Wykoff was briefly on the wrestling team, was surprised to hear of the arrest.
“I hardly knew him, but he seemed like a nice kid,” Swerdfeger said.
Swerdfeger lives in the same neighborhood where Wykoff was arrested, but said the alleged attempted vehicle burglary doesn’t cause him to worry for his car’s safety. The biggest disturbance the block usually sees is the occasional rowdy college party, Swerdfeger said.
“I don’t know if there’s serious burglars around here,” Swerdfeger said. “I think drunk college kids with bad ideas.”
Wykoff was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.