I was once the victim of a stalker.

[NightTrain]

Today at another forum, we got into a discussion about stalkers. It led me to recount my experiences with one. Here's what I wrote:

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I had a problem in 1997, with an obsessed radio listener.

It began with numerous phone calls from the guy every week during what was then my two-hour show. Our conversations about the music eventually turned to his asking me questions about my personal life and expecting detailed answers from me. Then he started calling the station 45 minutes before my show started, to see if I had gotten there yet.

He somehow learned both my home phone number (which was unlisted) and what my car looked like. More than once when I got to the station, that guy would be there. Another time, I found a note from him on my windshield. And there were the ubiquitous messages on my home answering machine.

After a couple of months of this crap, I called the cops, who promised to talk to the guy. He never bothered me again.

[baby_bear]

1. Great anecdote about stalkers

This isn't to diminish your experience, as I had my own experience with a stalker, when WA state had no anti-stalker law (11 yrs ago).

There was a wonderful story in the NYTimes Arts & Leisure section this morning about Kitty Carlisle (age 93) and Kristin Chenoweth (35). I remember Kitty from game shows when I was a child. See http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/06/theater/newsandfeatures/06BRAN.html

<snip>

"I had one of those (stalkers)," Mrs. Hart said. "It was troubling, because my daughter walked home from school in those days. So I called Frank Sinatra." The stalker, she said demurely, was never heard from again.

</snip>

The whole article is a delight to read. Just thought I would add this to the thread. I could have used a Frank Sinatra for my stalker!! (I wonder what happened....)

s_m

[BlackVelvetElvis]

2. I was stalked by a man out on parole

He was working at the public library in Sarasota, FL. I was skipping classes and reading some books. He came up to me and started talking to me about how the messiah was alive and the end would soon come <I'm not joking>. I scrambled out of there and he followed me to my car and saw my school parking sticker. A few days later, he shows up on campus and finds me (it was a small campus). I told the school authorities who didn't bother to do anything. Since I lived on such a small campus, he found out where I lived. Since the school did nothing (thanks RSAD!) I went to the library and talked to the librarian who was shocked. It turned out that ex cons were doing some community service at the library. She called the cops, they talked to me and arrested him for violating parole.
The whole ordeal scared the hell out of me.

[EstimatedProphet]

3. I had a stalker once

When I lived in DC I used to run a movie group. We'd get together for movies on weekends. This guy starts showing up, and he was clearly, well, not right in the head. when people would talk to him they'd get scared off and never come back. It got to the point where I had to tell him to quit coming. WELL...
1) he got my phone number (cell) and called me every 5 minutes, then would hang up before I could find out who it was. He'd do it from several different phones (must have been pay phones) so that there was not a specific caller Id to trace;
2) he would show up before the movie and put up signs (this is in a public place, mind you) saying I had cancelled, hoping people would see the signs and leave;
3) he had a continual online campaign under a myriad of email addresses attacking me constantly, and would always call me a "communist"(!)
4) and this is the creepiest by far-he would show up at the theater and watch everyone.
I eventually had to just quit the movie group and start over with a private list. He had way too much invested in it, far more than I did. After that, problem solved-he could never find out where I was.