‘We saw it all on Zoom’: Man breaks into Cleveland teacher’s home during online classes

CLEVELAND — A Cleveland man is accused of breaking into a teacher’s home and robbing her at knife point while the woman was conducting an online lesson with a student, authorities said.

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Charles Derosett, 43, was indicted Wednesday on charges of aggravated robbery, aggravated menacing and felonious assault, The Plain Dealer of Cleveland reported. Derosett remains in the Cuyahoga County Jail without bail, the newspaper reported.

The woman, who lives in Cleveland, was teaching a student in Lake County on Nov. 23 when the crime occurred, WJW reported.

“My kid is on a Zoom session and we live in Kirtland and the teacher that teaches my son, somebody broke into her house,” the student’s mother told the television station.

“Like, we saw it all on the Zoom,” the student’s father told a Lake County police dispatcher. “I guess my wife heard the man say, ‘Get on the floor, I am going to cut your (expletive) throat.’”

The Kirtland Local Schools teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, was teaching one of her special needs students at about 11 a.m. through Zoom when she heard a commotion downstairs at her home, The Plain Dealer reported.

“(It) was my first day of remote teaching, and I heard a loud bang,” the 32-year-old teacher told the newspaper. “Everything was locked. My husband and my 1-year-old son left for the gym.”

According to the teacher, Derosett broke a window on the first floor of her home to gain entry, The Plain Dealer reported.

“I actually said, ‘Is this for real?’” the woman told the newspaper. “‘Am I really being robbed?’ It was crazy. I think he probably was staking out the house and thought no one else was home after my husband and son left.”

The family of the student did not know where the teacher lived, but they had her telephone number, WJW reported. They called the police, who responded quickly.

“It was good thinking on behalf of the student and the student’s family to reach out and figure out exactly where his teacher lived,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley told the television station.

According to the victim, Derosett ordered her to go to her bedroom and demanded her car keys and two boxes of watches in her room, The Plain Dealer reported.

The woman then told Derosett her keys were downstairs, and when they returned to the first floor the victim unlocked a baby gate and released her two large dogs, who began to chase the intruder.

“I’m sure he wasn’t prepared for me,” the victim told The Plain Dealer. “The more I think about it, the more I think, ‘This guy does not know how to be a criminal. This guy did not know what he was getting into.’”

He also did not know how to respond when the dogs came after him.

“As soon as I released them, I was like, ‘Oh my God, is he going to hurt my dogs?’ But they knew I was scared and they got frightened, and they are very scary when they are frightened.’”

A man, who was doing work on the home next door to the victim told police he saw a man, later identified as Derosett, run out of the woman’s home with the victim in pursuit, The Plain Dealer reported.

The worker and the victim chased Desorett and detained him until police arrived, WJW reported.

“This individual needs to be taken off the street,” O’Malley told the television station. “Our county is not safe with him out again. He is out for 36 days and breaking into occupied homes. He needs to go back to prison.”

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