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BLUE ASH – An 89-year-old woman arrested for not giving neighborhood children their football back after it landed repeatedly in her yard said today she'll return the ball.
But not right away.
"That's my only way of getting through to these children," Edna Jester said. "I'll give it back to them later, but not right now."
Jester was arrested and charged with petty theft after she took the ball and refused to give it back, Blue Ash police said. Word of her arrest has touched off national news interest in the case.
Officers were called about 6:30 p.m. Thursday to her home in the 4900 block of Myrtle Avenue by one of the children’s fathers, Blue Ash Police Capt. James Schaffer said.
The football apparently was thrown into Jester’s yard, and it wasn’t the first time, he said. The issue has been an ongoing dispute in the neighborhood, he said.
When police asked Jester to return the ball to the children, she refused. They warned her twice she would be charged if she did not cooperate, Schaffer said. They tried to give her a citation, but she refused to sign for it, he said.
Left with no other choice, he said, officers placed her in the back of a cruiser, took her to the police station and booked her, he said. Schaffer said Jester told police to handcuff her but they refused.
Jester was cited to appear in Blue Ash Mayor’s Court Nov. 12 and released from custody.
Commenting on her arrest, Jester said, "It was a terrible ordeal. Terrible."
The football, valued at $15, is being held for evidence, Schaffer said.
The potential maximum penalty for a petty theft conviction in Ohio is six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. Schaffer said he suspects the mayor or presiding magistrate will take into account her age and lack of criminal record when the case comes up.
Tanis said he never wanted Jester to be arrested.
“I just wanted the ball back,” Tanis said. “My son paid for the ball with his own money.”
Tanis said she has kept about 10 balls – basketballs and soccer balls – belonging to his children that went into her yard. Jester said she has kept only three.
Tanis’ son is in junior high school. Tanis declined to give his son’s name in order to protect him from unwanted publicity.
“It’s inappropriate that it’s blown up into this big a deal,” he said. “This is turning into nothing but a nightmare.”
Tanis and his wife, Kelly, have five children and have lived in the Blue Ash neighborhood for seven years. Jester has lived there since 1949.
Tanis said his son and some of his cousins and friends were playing football in the street Thursday when the ball landed in Jester’s yard, where she was gardening. He said Jester picked up the football, refused to give it back and told him to call the police.
Tanis said he told the police officer who responded to his call that he didn’t want to press charges against her.
“Edna and I have gotten along well,” he said. “I’ve cut her grass for free. We know she doesn’t like neighbors going into her yard, and we do the best we can to avoid it.”
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