Originally Posted by
Dan Druff
When I was dating Miri, she had a weird stalker who just wouldn't go away.
She had gone out on one date with the guy in 2001. Nothing happened between them. Date wasn't horrible, but she wasn't into him, and didn't see him again. He didn't seem weird on the date, just was quiet and had no personality.
Anyway, I started going out with her in mid-2001, a few months after she had that one date with him. Sometime around 2002, he started randomly calling her every so often. He wouldn't introduce himself, either. She'd answer the phone, and he'd say something like "What's up", and then start talking as if they were best friends. The first few times, before she got familiar with his voice, she had to stop him and ask who he was. These calls occurred every few months.
At first, she politely engaged with him and made an excuse to get off the phone after a few minutes.
However, then the calls started getting creepier. He would call as late as 2am sometimes, and again, just start talking as if everything was normal. Because of the long time between calls, sometimes as long as 6 months, she didn't bother getting a restraining order or calling the police. By the point she told him firmly never to call her again, and he would just hang up on her. Then of course he'd call again months later, and pretend everything was fine. She'd yell at him again to stop calling or she'd call the police, and he'd just hang up, but again call back months later.
This repeated throughout the next few years. I kept urging her to let me get involved, but she was afraid it would escalate, and figured she'd just put up with it, because he'd only do this once every few months.
Around 2005, I was with her in bed, and the dude called at like 3am and woke us both up. She finally told me to answer the phone, and say I was her husband, hoping he'd go away. He hung up on me when I answered, but I did get a chance to get out that I was her husband and he was to stop calling.
Well, he didn't give a shit. A few months later, he called, again at like 2:30am. I answered and said, "You just made a huge mistake, I told you to stop calling, she told you to stop calling, and now I'm going to make it happen."
He hung up on me. I called him right back. He answered, I started telling him again to quit calling, and he hung up on me again. I repeatedly called him over and over, until he finally stopped answering and let it go to voicemail. Then I filled up his voicemail, initially saying that he needed to leave Miri alone like she's been asking, and then just filling it up with quick junk messages so it would be completely full.
He called the voicemail and cleared it about 20 minutes later (remember, this was all in the middle of the night), and I called back over and over and filled it again.
Finally he answered the phone, and I said, "You're not going to be getting much sleep... tonight, or ever. And if you change your phone number, I'll get the new one. I am going to call you every single night for the rest of your life until you promise to stop stalking my wife."
He hung up on me again. I called several more times. Finally, he answered and said, "I'm calling the police."
I responded, "Great! Do it! I can't wait to tell them why I'm making these calls, and Miri will have a lot to say to them, as well. That's why I know I can call you as much as I want. You can't go to the police, because you know you're the one doing the stalking."
He hung up on me.
I called back once more. He answered again. I said, "I'm going to give you one more chance. I'm going to stop calling now. If you ever call Miri again, I will be calling you for the rest of your life, every single night. Do you need me to put her on once more, to confirm once again that she never wants you to call her, and that you've been harassing her for years?"
"No, you don't have to do that," he responded.
"Good," I replied. "I'll expect that you won't be calling again. Goodbye."
Miri was nervous that perhaps I made the situation worse, but I told her that I had a good feeling. "He sounded like a broken man after my hours of phone calls and the repeated filling of his voicemail. I have a feeling that you won't be hearing from him again."
I was correct. He never called her again.
