Sleepers and Stalkers

2 stories I wanna tell today:

I’m driving to work this morning, almost to my exit.  Morning traffic going into downtown is a nightmare with a capital nightmare.  Bumper to bumper traffic.  That’s why it was easy for me to notice when in the lane next to mine, there was a growing gap between the car that was next to me and the cars in front of it.  I look over and the guy driving the car is ASLEEP!  How he managed to keep his foot on the brake, I have no idea but he was doing the good head nod, holding up traffic.

The truck behind him beeped their horn and that woke him up.  But he was driving real crazy like until I lost sight of him.  He almost crashed into the concrete barrier twice.  He started to drift over into my lane and almost hit the car in front of me.  He’d slam on his brakes when there were no cars in front of him.  I pray to God that he made it to his destination safely and that he didn’t harm anyone in the process.

 

Now, onto the stalking.  My BFF recently told me about some guy that she went to high school with who is displaying stalker tendencies and that reminded me of when I had my own stalker.

This was about…3.5 years ago.  It was before I met D and when I lived alone in my previous apartment.  I met a guy at a lounge and we exchanged numbers.  We didn’t get a chance to talk much when we met (there was a live band) but from what I could tell, he seemed to be cool. 

He called me a few days later and I found out that he was in his mid 30’s, divorced and had an 11 year old daughter.  His parents had passed away and left him a house in a nice suburb.  We didn’t talk long because I was at work and he told me that he was at traffic court paying a ticket.

We talked on the phone a few more times and made a date to go out to dinner.  I forgot what restaurant we went to but I noticed right away how rude he was to our server.  She did mess up a few things but he was being really evil to her.  I was slightly turned off but I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.  After dinner, we drove a short ways to a toy store.  This was around Christmas time and he wanted to pick up some last minute gifts for his daughter.  I helped him pick out some games and other toys and we left.  We had also planned to go to a movie so after he dropped me back off at my car, we drove to the theatre.  We saw the last showing of Ocean’s 12.  By the time we left the theatre, our cars were some of the last few in the parking lot and there was a huge snowstorm.  I gave him a quick hug before I jumped in my car and drove home.  It took me longer than usual to get home due to the storm and my bald ass tires but he stayed on the phone with me until I got there.

After a few more times talking on the phone and public dates, I accepted his invitation to go to his house for dinner.  My car was having issues at the time so he came to pick me up.  Now, the suburb where he lived is Shaker Heights.  If any of you are familiar with the area, you’ll agree that some parts are very ritzy.  When we were pulling into the driveway, looking at the house from the outside, I would guess that it was probably in the $300,000 – $400,000 range.  However, when we walked in…OMG.  First of all, it smelled like 56.5 cats lived there and used every inch of carpet as their personal litter box.  The kitchen…there must have been some type of flooding in the upstairs level because there were holes in the ceiling that I guessed was caused by water damage.  The walls were yellow and greasy, there were cobwebs in the corners.  He did know I was coming over, right?  If he thought I was eating anything coming out of that kitchen, he had another thing coming.  We walked into the living room and while that at least looked decent and…clean, I was assaulted by flowers.  Floral couch, floral wallpaper with a floral border.  Dried flowers in a wreath on the wall.  Floral carpet.  Fiery mess.  I told him I wasn’t that hungry and that I just wanted to watch a movie.  About halfway through, I started to nod off.  I wake up and this guy is trying to kiss me.  I jump up and he continues to try and hug and kiss me.  After a few minutes of that, I ask him to take me home.  He tells me that I can just stay the night over there and I decline.  I thought about telling his ass off but realized that I had to ride in the car with him back to my house so I kept a lid on it.

After that whole thing, I decided that I didn’t have any more holla for this dude.  I wouldn’t call him and I’d just send him to voicemail if he called me.  I figured he would eventually get the point.

One night, around 3am, he called me back to back to back.  I thought about turning my phone off but I don’t like doing that because who knows if something happened and I needed to be reached in a real emergency?  He would not stop calling so I finally answered.  He sounded extremely drunk when he told me he was at a bar near my house and he couldn’t drive home.  I asked who he was there with and he told me he was with a few of his boys.  I told him he needed to get them to drive him home and hung up.  He called back a few minutes later and when I answered he told me that his boys left him.  I asked him what he was calling me for and he told me he needed somewhere to sleep for the night.  I told him he should probably sleep in his car and hung up.  LOL  Needless to say, he called again.  When I answered he sounded sober as hell.  He asked me why I was playing him and dogging him in front of his boys (???).  I told him that he was too grown to be acting this crazy and that he needed to stop calling me.  Forever.  He flipped the script and tried to be all sweet but I wasn’t trying to hear it so I hung up.

I thought that was the last of him until a few days later.  It was Valentine’s Day and I walked outside to get in my car to go to work.  My neighborhood was pretty decent so I didn’t always lock my doors.  I get in my car and notice a rose and card on my passenger seat.  I honestly thought it was from someone else until I opened the card.  It was from Stalker Dude!  I can’t remember what the card said but it was extremely stalkerish.  I called him on the way to work and told him to stay away from me, my house and my property.  He was all baby why are you acting like that, etc.  He just didn’t get it!

As the next couple weeks passed, he would call and I would send him to voicemail.  But I guess that last little shred of sanity he might have had finally went away because his ass went completely crazy.  He’d leave me voicemails saying that I reminded him of his ex-wife and he couldn’t stand that bitch.  He would say that I would pay for playing him like I did.  Then he called right back and say he was sorry and didn’t mean any of it.

There were a few late nights where someone would bang on my door or ring my buzzer and when I looked out the peephole, no one was there.  It was me seeing him sitting in his car in the parking lot across from mine one morning that finally made me go to the police.

When I went to the police, I filed a report and they told me they would call him to let him know that I didn’t want this guy’s attention and that he should lay off.  The officer told me that a lot of times it just takes someone knowing that you actually went to the police for them to take you seriously.  He told me that this could also backfire and that I should have someone stay with me for a while so I would feel more safe.  He also told me that they could increase the patrols around my apartment complex to see if they saw him hanging out around my building.  He told me to come back if anything else happened.

I had a friend of mine come stay with me for a few weeks.  He was just getting out of the Army and he needed a place to stay while his Dad was having a house built.  It actually worked out perfectly.  He would walk me out to my car every morning and meet me outside when I got home.  I was shook!  I had NEVER been in a situation like this before.

A few nights later, my friend and I were at the house watching a movie.  I got a call from an unknown number.  I sent it to voicemail.  I never really answer unknown calls.  They called back again and I answered.  I figured if they called twice, it must be someone I know.  It was Stalker Dude.  And he was PISSED.  He called me a bitch and said that I didn’t have to go to the police.  He told me that he was going to slash my tires and bust out my windows in my car and my apartment.  My friend noticed that I wasn’t saying anything on the call and he saw the look on my face.  He put his ear to my phone so he was able to hear Stalker Dude say that he was going to rape me and then beat my ass.  I lost it at that point.  I told him that he was crazy and how could he say something like that to me when he has a daughter.  My friend took the phone from me and tried to talk shit but Stalker Dude had already hung up.

That night, around 2:30am, someone pounded on my door.  My friend was out in the living room and when he went to the peephole, no one was there.  He came into my room and woke me up and told me to sleep out in the living room.  My bed was right by a window and I lived on the first floor.  He didn’t want to take the chance of Stalker Dude really busting out my window.  About a half hour later, someone would not stop buzzing my apartment.  Friend pulled a duffel bag from underneath my couch and took his gun out.  I didn’t even know he had a gun!  He went out to the lobby where the buzzers were located but no one was there.

The next day, friend and I went back to the police station.  I told the officer what happened and let him listen to all the voicemails I had saved from Stalker Dude.  I told him him what Stalker Dude had said about raping me and his demeanor totally changed.  He told me that he would be right back and left friend and I in the lobby.  When he came back, we found out that he did a quick check on Stalker Dude.  Turns out he had a rap sheet miles long.  He was on probation and had been to prison (most recently) for forgery, stalking, possession of an illegal firearm, assault, and drug possession.  I was in shock!  He told me he would contact Stalker Dude’s probation officer and this would be taken care of.

Friend stayed with me for a while longer.  I eventually had to kick his ass out, though, because for some reason he thought it was okay to sell weed out of my house.  *smh*  Not too long after that, I met D and the rest is history.  But best believe, I checked him out before we met up in person.  I knew he had graduated with an Engineering degree before he ever told me.  LOL  I am a stickler for background checks now.  Whenever my friends start to date someone new, I email her the websites for the Clerk of Courts page and the Sexual Offender Registry.  If they are going out, I’ll ask for his full name, where they are going and his plate number.  LOL!  I don’t play.  You never know…people are crazy out here!!!!