stalkers

[AM]

There was a tv program on last nite about stalkers and it frightened the hell out of me. The most frightening stuff is, that an most people who are stalked are "normal" people, not celebrities as I alwasy thought.

They showed some really serious stuff about a guy who had a video diary for a couple of months and during this period of time you could actually see how he changed from being just a lonely guy to be an obsessed stalker trying to kill someone. It all ended that this guy send a bomb to Bjork and then killed himself. Luckyly enough, the tapes were found in time and the bomb could be stopped.

I don´t know what to say. This is just unbelievable.


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"The bass player's got it. The bass player's fucking got it." Bono, Boston 6-9-01

[AM]

I know that Adam had a stalker at some stage. Scary!

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"The bass player's got it. The bass player's fucking got it." Bono, Boston 6-9-01

[sulawesigirl4]

One of my good friends was stalked for a while by some person in this city. I have no idea why...or even if he "knew" her. *shudders* Some people are really sick.

[Lemonite]

This is some scary stuff.. i mean we've all had the girl/boy stalker who was after our affection, but seriously for that girl to then start following you to the John.. or when you sharpen your pencil.. that's pretty messed up.. and that's not even getting into teh violent crap that goes on...

Sooooo.... My call to Women.. Keep your chests covered in the Night clubs, Men, Don't f#ck more than one girl in a night, and Everyone.. Buy a Magnum.. hah.. just kidding,.. maybe a machete

[foray]

I once drove a guy to do weird things when I jilted him. He bugged my friends, too, and got into my bedroom to burn pics of his ex-gf?? Go figure... As for internet stalkers, all of you are suspects to me!
.
.

...

.


furrified

[Kieran McConville]

From The Onion:

INTERNET FRIEND GETTING CREEPIER

DEDHAM, MA—According to Boston-area America Online user Josh Reuss, an Internet friendship between himself and Larry Vliet of Socorro, NM, is "getting a little creepy."


Above: The weirded-out Reuss.

The pair, who first met in a Quake III Arena chat room on AOL, quickly discovered that they share numerous interests and began a pattern of regular e-mails and instant-message conversations, which Reuss described as "pretty normal and enjoyable at first, but soon turned strange."

"One time, we were playing Quake against each other, and he killed my guy," the 31-year-old Reuss said. "A few minutes after the game ended, I get this e-mail from him saying, 'Hey, sorry I killed you, Josh. But at least now you know what it's like to be dead.' I thought that was kind of weird, but then he added, 'P.S.—Did I tell you I'm going to be in D.C. next week? Maybe I'll swing by Dedham to see you.' That's, like, 500 miles away."

Reuss' discomfort grew several days later during an e-mail exchange.

"Larry e-mailed me, supposedly just to say hi, and toward the end of his message, he asked if I had a dog," Reuss said. "I said no. So he writes back and says that's too bad, because he was wondering if I knew of any good ways to keep a dog from howling. I'm thinking to myself: Why is he asking me for help with this? And why is his dog howling?"

The following week, Reuss e-mailed Vliet to inquire if his dog had finally settled down. Vliet responded that he didn't know what Reuss was talking about, informing him that he does not have a dog.

"That was definitely some Twilight Zone shit there," Reuss said. "But then, just as I'm trying to process the whole dog thing, the thought suddenly pops into my head that he'd never made that trip to D.C. he'd been talking about. Why on Earth would someone lie about something like that?"


Above: A recent, just slightly creepy message from Vliet.

Compounding Reuss' unease are his repeated attempts to determine what Vliet does for a living.

"A while back, I asked him what kind of job he has, just to try to start up a normal conversation, and he said, 'Oh, I do a bunch of stuff.' That got me curious, so I've asked him a few more times since, and he's always given these vague, evasive answers like, 'Oh, I pick up work here and there,' and 'Don't worry about me, Josh, I've got my ways of paying the rent, if you catch my drift.' No, I don't catch his drift."

Another font of strangeness, Reuss said, is an ongoing conversational thread he calls "the web-page issue."

"One of our first chats was about how tough it is to find good Half-Life levels on-line. At one point, I said someone should make a really good Half-Life-file web page, but he somehow got it into his head that I was saying this was something the two of us should do. He brings up 'our web page' every week or so, asking if I've made any progress. I keep telling him I don't know anything about web-site programming, but he just says, 'Well, there are books you can get that will teach you how to do it.' It's like, then you learn to do it."

Recently, Reuss has taken to signing onto AOL under a name different from the one on his account and then checking his e-mail via AOL's web page, all in an effort to avoid Vliet.

"I don't want to be rude to the guy, since, believe it or not, I'm still not 100 percent sure he's a psycho," Reuss said. "But just the same, I think I'll keep him at a healthy distance. Especially after yesterday's e-mail, where he went off about how he got drunk the other night and woke up the next morning in a hospital bed with scorpion bites all over his arms. I mean, if that story's true, that's weird. But if it's not true, well, that's even weirder."


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"I may go crazy
before that mansion on the hill
but my heart keeps beating faster
and my feet can't keep still..."

[AM]

that´s really scary stuff, Kieran. Now I´m even more scared

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"The bass player's got it. The bass player's fucking got it." Bono, Boston 6-9-01

[Klodomir]

Relax, AM, The Onion is a satirical web site.

[Angela Harlem]

Thats all pretty weird. There was this movie on Fox the other day, it was called The Presence of Good or Evil is Present or something. I only caught the last 3/4 to last 1/2 of it. It was about some girl in America who through an unfortunate set of circumstances ended up the target of this psycho girl she was at school with. She lived with only her mum and had some serious incidents where this nutter tried to harm her, but with the help of some socially unstable, low self esteem peers managed to finally murder her. For some reason the movie got me hooked, it wasn't very well acted, and not of high quality. Then as the credits were rolling up, it stated that the mother went on to fight the laws in this American state on stalking. It was true story! She eventually won her case and stalking was declared a crime, and punishable through the law. Most alarming after this was it said that stalking is not recognizable as a crime in some states in the US. I couldn't believe it. I know its very hard to prove, but in this case, it could have been prevented. It was a very sad movie and very worrying.

[Kieran McConville]

Originally posted by Angela Harlem:
Thats all pretty weird. There was this movie on Fox the other day, it was called The Presence of Good or Evil is Present or something. I only caught the last 3/4 to last 1/2 of it. It was about some girl in America who through an unfortunate set of circumstances ended up the target of this psycho girl she was at school with. She lived with only her mum and had some serious incidents where this nutter tried to harm her, but with the help of some socially unstable, low self esteem peers managed to finally murder her. For some reason the movie got me hooked, it wasn't very well acted, and not of high quality. Then as the credits were rolling up, it stated that the mother went on to fight the laws in this American state on stalking. It was true story! She eventually won her case and stalking was declared a crime, and punishable through the law. Most alarming after this was it said that stalking is not recognizable as a crime in some states in the US. I couldn't believe it. I know its very hard to prove, but in this case, it could have been prevented. It was a very sad movie and very worrying.

Disturbing story. In all seriousness, it's intriguing how some of these stories (eg. other films generally) that come across as hackneyed, actually turn out to be based on true events.

Repeated crank phone calls are bad enough - full-blown stalking would be a hell on earth.

[foray]

Oh my goodness, I gotta tell you guys this. My mother has this ruse she uses on prank callers. Whenever someone calls up anonymouslyto make breathing noises, say kinky stuff, ask for our info: She goes into her "National Zoo" mode. Basically she makes animal noises back at them and says things like "This is the National Zoo. This is the sound of a rhinocerous giving birth." The callers never call again!


foray

[Kieran McConville]

Originally posted by foray:
Oh my goodness, I gotta tell you guys this. My mother has this ruse she uses on prank callers. Whenever someone calls up anonymouslyto make breathing noises, say kinky stuff, ask for our info: She goes into her "National Zoo" mode. Basically she makes animal noises back at them and says things like "This is the National Zoo. This is the sound of a rhinocerous giving birth." The callers never call again!


foray

That's a classic. Almost better than Cosmo Kramer doing his imitation of the movie selection guide.

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"I was in need of help
Heading to black out
'Til someone told me 'run on in honey
Before somebody blows your goddam' brains out'
You shop-lifted as a child
I had a model's smile
You carried all my hopes
Until something broke inside..."

[Klodomir]

LOL, Foray! Give me your mother's phone number, I have to hear that!

[foray]

My sister once called Mom up with a raspy voice because she was having a sorethroat. Since my Mom couldn't recognise my sister's voice, she went into her National Zoo mode as usual! My sister had to scream, "Mom!!" Hehe... my mother is a little eccentric and cute.

foray

[U2Bama]

Yes, foray is indeed paranoid of stalkers. She accused some of us of being stalkers when we challenged her to post her photo. And we are half a world away.

~U2Alabama

[foray]

are you trying to tell me something

[Angela Harlem]

Forty, would you like to be stalked?

I can imagine you ever getting a call from anyone with a Southern accent, and immediately assuming its Bama "Bama, would you like to hear a Rhinoceros having a crap?"

Honestly fors, dont worry about the internet, no one can be bothered flying all the way to the arse end of the world, NZ, just for you

[foray]

WELL-L-L, smart alecs, newsflash: People can stalk people over the internet!


foray

[Angela Harlem]

well, duh! I could be stalking you right now flurry. but im not.

im bored.

just replying cos i have nothing better to do.

[CatDubh]

Originally posted by AM:
I know that Adam had a stalker at some stage. Scary!

I sweeeeaaaaaaaaar to God, it wasn't me!!

Ugh


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Zooming in
Zooming out
Nothing I can't do without
A lens to see it all up close
Magnifying what no one knows
Never in company
Never alone
No car alarm
No cellular phone - Adam Clayton / Passengers

***Sparky's Whore***

If I Didn't Have My Spoons, I'd Go Insane!