"It's terrifying," Jack Thurston said.

Thurston is usually out covering the news. He's a former WCAX News reporter now working for NECN. Tuesday night, he found himself at the center of a crime story that hit close to home-- quite literally.

"I was in my living room. I heard this sound that was incredibly loud and I knew instantly what it was," Thurston said.

Around 10:30 p.m., a bullet pierced the window of Thurston's Winooski condo. It lodged in some Christmas decorations stored in an overhead loft just 10 feet from where he was sitting.

"Just feet from my pillow on my bed," he noted.

Thurston lives just blocks from the police department. He doesn't believe he was targeted. Investigators tell me they haven't ruled it out.

"We don't know the person's intent, whether it was an accidental discharge or something purposefully done. Until we determine that, we are going to treat it as real," Winooski Police Chief Rick Hebert said.

Accidental or intentional, it's illegal to fire a gun within the city limits.

"Different reports from different people who live in the area all heard it but they thought they came from different directions, which is pretty normal when you have buildings in every direction," Hebert said.

Detectives are now working on a trajectory to try to pinpoint where in the densely populated area the gun may have been fired from, but it's the bullet itself that may provide the most telling clues.

"It's an old lead-style bullet. It's a type of bullet that isn't produced or sold in the United States anymore, so we tend to believe it's an old bullet," Hebert explained.

Reporters avoid making the headlines personal. Thurston tells us his concern is for public safety. He knows firsthand how these incidents can go terribly wrong. He was one of the reporters on the scene back in 2008 when a stray bullet from a makeshift firing range killed a college professor at his home in Essex.

"Which was a shocking tragedy. It was just so awful and just what a beloved figure in the community," Thurston said. "I'm, obviously, so grateful that I was unscathed."

Thurston says he believes Vermont is a very safe place and calls this bad luck.

Police do not have any suspects but they are asking anyone who heard or saw something to call them.