FOSTER TOWNSHIP -- A man is in custody in Luzerne County, charged with beating a rest area worker with a hammer on Interstate 80.
Rob Oney is the overnight attendant at the Interstate 80 rest area near White Haven.
Midway into his overnight shift, he was cleaning the men's room when he was struck in the back of the head by a man with a hammer, a man screaming something Oney didn't understand.
"This person, whoever he is, God bless him, was out of his mind," said Oney.
He was bleeding from the scalp from where the hammer struck, then he suffered a black eye and a bloody nose from the fistfight after knocking the hammer out of his attacker's hand.
"I was willing to fight for my life," Oney said. "All I wanted to do was get that hammer out of his hand, and then struggle. I struggled to fight with him, because he was a really fit person."
Police identified the attacker as Joshua Schoonmaker of Luzerne County, a man with a 15-year rap sheet of criminal violence.
After the hammer attack, police say Schoonmaker left the rest area, walked down to I-80, and police found him three miles away, walking on the side of the road.
"You should feel safe coming to a rest area," said Ed Clause of Ohio.
Travelers at the rest area feel the attack makes them feel less safe.
"I usually feel pretty comfortable, but I take my phone with me even to the restroom. I don't feel that safe," said Donna Lynn Becker of Montoursville.
"I have seen a lot of strange things," Oney added.
Oney spent the morning in the hospital. He's healing, and soon, he'll have to go back to work.
"I have second thoughts working the night time, but I need to keep my job."
On this Thanksgiving weekend, Rob Oney says he's thankful to be alive after the violent attack.
