WILKES-BARRE - To hear Jake Jenkins tell it, he's battening down the hatches in a battle against evil. As he opens the door on his Waller Street home, the sound of scraping metal and wood escapes through the cracks. He's pulling back the bars and beams that keep his family secure.
And the witches out.
"Yeah, wood and steel," he said, standing in the open doorway. "Nobody's getting in."
Jenkins, 51, and his wife spend much of their time hunkered down in their two-story home along with their eight children ranging in ages from 22 years to 1.
He said he home-schools his children.
"I'm no fool."
Wilkes-Barre Area School District Superintendent Jeff Namey said parents who home-school their children must submit an application to the district, a curriculum, and a portfolio of students' work at the end of the year.
Asked if Jenkins was registered with the district as a home-schooling parent, Namey said he didn't know but would check.
Jenkins doesn't really want to talk about himself, or his family for that matter.
"The witches are after us, so I don't really want to get into any personal stuff," he said.
He told a Times Leader photographer "witches are trying to kill me." Asked why, he said, "I really don't know."
His protection against dark forces extends beyond his front door.
A tree stump in the center of his small front yard is adorned with wooden stakes: nine point skyward, and seven jut from its side along its circumference.
"It's a map of the neighborhood," Jenkins said. "Each spike points to where a witch lives.
"There's a whole bunch that live up there," he said, pointing north up Waller Street.
The horizontal stakes, painted red, point out the witches, he said. The purpose of the vertical ones? To gently dissuade witches from using his stump for ceremonies.
"What they used to do is come by and sit on it," he said.
An orange plastic fence on either side of his home is yet another anti-witch precaution. "They would always try to sneak over."
Jenkins won't name names, but says he's got the dirt on the neighborhood.
"The one up there, she drinks human blood," he said. "The one ... there, she's the real high-level witch, but she's real slick."
Standing on his porch dressed in warm-up pants, a T-shirt and a sweat-stained army cap, Jenkins explains Luzerne County is the location of the largest witches coven in the state.
"Police know about it," he added.
"No one has come to me and said we have a problem with witches on Waller Street," said police Chief Gerry Dessoye.
He said records of police responses to the South Wilkes-Barre street would be available today.
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And the witches out.
"Yeah, wood and steel," he said, standing in the open doorway. "Nobody's getting in."
Jenkins, 51, and his wife spend much of their time hunkered down in their two-story home along with their eight children ranging in ages from 22 years to 1.
He said he home-schools his children.
"I'm no fool."
Wilkes-Barre Area School District Superintendent Jeff Namey said parents who home-school their children must submit an application to the district, a curriculum, and a portfolio of students' work at the end of the year.
Asked if Jenkins was registered with the district as a home-schooling parent, Namey said he didn't know but would check.
Jenkins doesn't really want to talk about himself, or his family for that matter.
"The witches are after us, so I don't really want to get into any personal stuff," he said.
He told a Times Leader photographer "witches are trying to kill me." Asked why, he said, "I really don't know."
His protection against dark forces extends beyond his front door.
A tree stump in the center of his small front yard is adorned with wooden stakes: nine point skyward, and seven jut from its side along its circumference.
"It's a map of the neighborhood," Jenkins said. "Each spike points to where a witch lives.
"There's a whole bunch that live up there," he said, pointing north up Waller Street.
The horizontal stakes, painted red, point out the witches, he said. The purpose of the vertical ones? To gently dissuade witches from using his stump for ceremonies.
"What they used to do is come by and sit on it," he said.
An orange plastic fence on either side of his home is yet another anti-witch precaution. "They would always try to sneak over."
Jenkins won't name names, but says he's got the dirt on the neighborhood.
"The one up there, she drinks human blood," he said. "The one ... there, she's the real high-level witch, but she's real slick."
Standing on his porch dressed in warm-up pants, a T-shirt and a sweat-stained army cap, Jenkins explains Luzerne County is the location of the largest witches coven in the state.
"Police know about it," he added.
"No one has come to me and said we have a problem with witches on Waller Street," said police Chief Gerry Dessoye.
He said records of police responses to the South Wilkes-Barre street would be available today.
Full Story
