Scranton, PA, Firefighter Charged with Trespassing at Fire Stations

Firefighter Victoria Zanicky was charged with criminal trespass after she entered two Scranton fire stations while she was on leave.

By Jim Lockwood

Source The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.

Nov. 25, 2025

3 min read

Scranton firefighter Victoria Zanicky was charged with criminal trespass after she entered two firehouses while she was on leave.

SCRANTON — City police charged a city firefighter on administrative leave with trespassing at two fire stations.

Victoria Zanicky, 43, was charged Sunday with a felony of criminal trespass at the Engine 2 fire station at 500 Gibbons St. and a misdemeanor of defiant trespass at the Truck 4 station at 1047 N Main Ave., a criminal complaint said.

According to the complaint:

Zanicky was on administrative leave for an undisclosed personnel matter and was not to go to any city fire station.
On Sunday at 5:08 p.m. police received a request from Fire Chief John Judge to respond to the Engine 2 station because he wanted to report a trespassing incident involving Zanicky.
On Saturday, Zanicky went to Engine 2 to give firefighters Christmas cards but they told her she was not allowed to be there. They were sitting in a lounge when Zanicky approached them from a hallway connecting to the garage and bunk room. “Zanicky’s shoes were off and they believed she took the shoes off so that the fire department staff would not hear her coming.” She asked them not to report her and left. The Fire Department chain of command was then notified.
She then went to the Fire Department headquarters on Mulberry Street, where she was intercepted by two patrol officers who happened to be in front of that station. Fire Department supervisors and one of the police officers told her she was not to trespass at a fire station.
While the complaint and affidavit were being written up, staff at the Truck 4 station at 1047 N Main Ave. reported that Zanicky was there in a vehicle in a parking lot behind the building. Three firefighters saw Zanicky attempting to conceal herself between the station house and a Fire Department van parked next to the station. She then drove away.
Judge requested that Zanicky be charged because prior notices against trespass failed to stop her from repeating her actions.

Zanicky remains employed by the city and on administrative leave, city Solicitor Jessica Eskra said Monday. Eskra declined to comment on the reason for administrative leave, citing personnel confidentiality.

After a preliminary arraignment Monday, Zanicky has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Dec. 2 and remained held in the Lackawanna County Prison, unable to post unspecified bail, according to court records.

Meanwhile, on Nov. 12, Zanicky unsuccessfully sought from the city Zoning Board a variance to put a nonprofit scuba training facility for disabled veterans and first responders in a residential neighborhood next to her home in the 800 block of Cherry Street in South Scranton, according to an Electric City Television simulcast and video of that meeting posted online.