Ranting about weird creepy stalker guy

I typed this blog post in May of this year (2011) but did not post at the time for several reasons- We were not only right in the middle of our adoption process but my nephew Jess was coming over by himself for a visit (he is Eli's age) and I did not want to worry his parents- I came across it tonight while cleaning out my blog and read through it- Just to fill in the blanks, the creepy stalker guy is named Mitchell Osborne- I actually saved his picture on my computer (I got it off of 1 of his MANY facebook profiles) along with several other pieces of identifiable info in case we ever hear from him again it will be easier to pass on to the police..............What a creeper!


Last March (10') our house phone rang in the middle of the night- I let it go to our machine and woke up just enough to hear our machine click on with our message- The machine clicked off without a message being left- Immediately my cell phone started ringing- I jumped out of bed and grabbed it- thinking that it must be an emergency and somebody close to us needed to get in touch.................
The phone was completely silent except for somebody breathing into it-
That March night started the first of hundreds of late night phone call's with someone breathing into the phone-
I didn't take it to seriously for the first month or so- I really just thought it was somebody being very foolish with a prank they were taking to far- We would unplug our house phone cause this person would call for hours if we didn't (always early morning hours)- I was leary of turning off my cell phone cause we needed a way for people to reach us if needed- If my cell phone and our house phone was off they would call Matt's cell phone-
Always doing the same thing- If Matt answered they would hang up immediately- If I answered they would sit on the phone and breathe.
It finally escalated to the point that I called our phone company and asked them to put a trace on our phone- They said that this person had to call a certain number of times before they would consider it harassment and put a trace on the line- The first night after I called the phone company this individual met the 'harassment' quota- The phone company also advised that I call the police.
The police started keeping track of how much he was calling- They also obtained the phone records from the phone company to get this person's phone number-  The police were very evasive as to if it was a cell phone or a land line- but finally said that they believed it was a cell phone- I asked that they figure out what cell towers were pinging (were they local or not) so that we could know what we were up against- The police would not as they said that it was infringing on the rights of the individual (SERIOUSLY??) and that they would only find out what cell towers were being used if a crime was committed-
The calls kept escalating and the months drug on- This person's number was always blocked on our cell phone's- so we could never get the number- along with not being able to get the number I was personally getting very weary of how persistent this individual was-
One night the calls were so much we shut every phone we had in the house off- After we shut off the phones I could not sleep so I got up and flipped on my computer- I thought I would cruise through face book to wind down and hopefully fall asleep again.
As my face book page came up I saw I had a new message- It was from a man I did not know named ***** telling me he knew my name, where I lived, and what church I went to- I also saw that a face book with my name (but no picture) had been created and was requesting to be friends with my friends- It was a good learning lesson to me to keep all of my face book info on private (only some of my info was private at the time this happened).
I FREAKED OUT! I was in the detective's office first thing the next morning- Crying, telling him that he had to do something cause I felt SO unsafe.  The detective advised me to change my cell number, we had the phone company block any calls from the number this person was calling from on our land line, and my face book went to completely private.  The detective also gave me the assurance that he would call the individual (whom they had identified but would not give me any info about) and warn him that if he called me again the police would get involved.
The phone went silent- all subsided..........a year passed
Last night (5/18/11) I got a text from one of my friends that I used to go to church with- she said that an individual was trying to get in touch with me and had contacted both she and her husband multiple times to try to get my phone number- they told this individual that they did not feel comfortable giving it out but would let me know and give me his phone number (which he left with them)-
I also got a call last night from another friend saying that some guy (same guy) called them asking for my number-

The name he left was the same name of the person that tried to contact me on face book last year-
******

My heart is unsettled- I am trying not to be worried- My initial reaction is that I am completely peeved-
HOW DARE HE INVADE MY PERSONAL SPACE-

I wrote the above on 5/19/11- Today is 5/27/11
Yesterday morning I got a call from one of the people this gentleman has been calling to try to get a hold of me- This individual told me that ***** had called him yesterday morning saying that he is 'on island' and wanted to get in contact with me- He said he is staying at Best Western in **** - He called from a new number (other than the one he used before)
I called the hotel and asked to be connected to his room- The operator didn't miss a beat as she sent me through- I hung up once the phone went to a ring (ringing his room) and then promptly got out of my car and threw up-
Matt and I went to see the detective that worked the case last year- The detective seemed to take it very serious that this gentleman was 'on island' and made a visit to the hotel yesterday afternoon- **** was not in his room- (where the heck is he??) and the detective was going to let the front desk know that he wanted to get into contact with him- The detective assured me that he would be back to check this out tomorrow.
Last night I had a really hard time sleeping- I finally grabbed my Bible and put in under my pillow- I am CLINGING to Psalm 34:7 and Psalm 91- Thank you Lord that you have this situation completely under control!
______________________________
Yesterday after I updated this blog post I got a call from the Detective working the case- He said that he was able to make contact with the gentleman and the gentleman admitted to contacting me last year and admitted to trying to get a hold of me recently but denied 'stalking' and said that he just wanted to come visit where we live- He likes dinosaurs and a certain dinosaur movie that he liked was filmed here- The detective advised him to not have contact with me and sent him on his way- From the detective's point of view he did not fit the 'stalker profile'- and because this gentleman had not physically touched me nor has he made any physical threats there was basically nothing they could do (meaning the police)- I could file a 'no contact' order so that if he were to try to ever contact me again he would be arrested (yes please!!)-
I also learned that he had taken an ATV tour that comes right up to the ranch we live on- He was on the tour Thurs................
The detective ended with 'He (stalker) feel's like this is a misunderstanding and would like to talk with both of you (Matt and I) to get this straightened out'..........My husband was all over that- not having me go along but definitely Matt wanted to put a name with a face and chat 'man to man' with this gentleman.
The meeting was set up for this morning (5/28)- It lasted about an hour and from Matt told me this gentleman is 25 and from what he told Matt, he is obsessed with Dinosaurs-  This Dinosaur obsession sparked his interest in where we live (again, because of the movie filmed here).  Shortly after Matt and I moved here I googled our place to see what was out there on it- I made the mistake of commenting on a blog with both my first and last name (never ever ever do that ladies- it is in the top 'no no's' to keep yourself protected from stuff like this)- I did not realize that my name was going to post but when it did I just figured 'oh well'-
He got my name off of that site and because of some mental health issues he has (OCD) he became obsessed with finding a way to contact me-
From what I can piece together from here- He found me on face book and was able to view my profile picture (which is no longer available to the public to view- only my friends) and my 'likes' (which I have also since put on private)- one of my 'likes' was my church here in Hawaii- I think he was so consumed with contacting me he created a face book page with my name and tried to be-friend my friends and ask about me- He then googled my name and found my maiden name and was able to piece together some of my family members (whom he said he tried to contact)- His obsession was quickly moving from Dinosaurs and the place we live to me-
Matt believes that his physical condition (bum leg, bum eye, puny) makes him not a physical threat but more of a 'cyber bully' and phone 'threat'-
Before Matt met with him we spent a greater part of the night turning his antics around on him- following him on face book, my space, and just the general web- we were able to find his face book account and follow that to several 'alias' face book accounts he had created (I saw the one he used to contact me)- etc... We learned quite a bit about him to determine what proper precautions we needed to take and so that Matt, while talking to this gentleman could confront the issues head on with proof-
Matt, in a physically 'non-confrontational' way was able to alert some family members he has traveled to the Islands with about the issues at hand and have a man to (puny) man talk with this stalker gentleman- Set some very healthy boundaries and get some closure so that we can all move on!
I have learned some healthy boundaries as well- with putting my name out there on the web- and pictures- and just general info- I understand that we live in a society that is computer generated and it is not possible to protect myself completely and that I still have to go on living- but simple steps of making sure my face book info is set to private, not putting my last name on blog posts, etc... can go a long way in protection-
I hope that as I end this blog post tonight- this will be just that 'the end' of ever having to deal with this type of issue again-
Ending on a good note- our adoption stuff is moving along!!! We are so excited and if you notice the new little device I added to this blog- it is a count down to our adoption day :) WHOOP WHOOP-