Monday, April 17, 2006

Backstory

About a month ago (start of March 2006) The Girlfriend and I were in the possession of some kittens she had rescued from a neighbor house. Attempting to find them homes, we talked to employees at PetCo in Delta Park. The girl working the counter was friendly and wanted to take one, she also ended up living a few blocks from our house in North Portland. Arrangements were made and the kitten was delivered. Her and Her Boyfriend seemed nice so we invited them to join us on a NoPo Social event to Big Daddy’s BBQ. We stopped by their house on the way there. That was the first time I met her and Her Boyfriend. I did not know at the time that she was The Stalker.

TS had quite a few animals including dogs and TG started going with TS to walk the dogs and visit the off leash area at the dog park. After one or two days she started referring to us as her best friends. This warning sign was ignored.

About a week after we met her, The Stalker’s life started falling apart. She was hanging around TG frequently talking about how Her Boyfriend was cheating on her. She increasingly taxed more and more of TG’s time with various errands and whatnot. When TG would not answer the phone, TS would come to the house and start banging on the windows of the bedroom. I received a call from work from TG say she did “not know what to do about this girl”.

TG was a little spooked, but compassionate toward TS. She felt sorry for her and wanted to help. TS’s life really fell apart on the third week. HB had moved out, she was unable to make rent on her house and was desperately looking for options. TG drover her around town helping her find a place to live as well as putting her in touch with a rental property owner. TS was an endless pit of need, from time spend on her missions to the cigarettes she was smoking, attending the her daily drama had become a full time job for TG.

One weeknight TS came banging on the door of the house well after midnight. She desperately needed me to hold on to some money orders for her. I was dazed and confused after waking up and told her I would hold into them for 24hours, sent her on her was and went back to bed. The following day TS had concocted a plan where I would deposit those money orders in my account and she would give me some of the money. I refused and told her that I was not a bank and that I would never be involved with her money matters. “Money complicates friendships” was what I was telling her.

The following day she showed up with a fancy new bike. She had convinced the owner of Wier’s Cycles to cash them for her. Much later I found out that the money orders were stolen from her previous landlord.

Sometime at the end of the third week TG approached me with the idea of have TS move in to our extra room (my office). I had not been paying much attention to TS up to this point, I figured she had become a friend in need. TG added to TS’s story that her father had died the same day that her boyfriend left, that she had taken all of her animals to the pound, and was running out of options for a place to live. I was quite a sob story, complete with TS being a head injury victim.

TG and I weighed the pros and cons of having her rent a room. We knew she would be a handful, but she was also working, and in the end compassion ruled the day. We agreed to let her rent the room. At that time TG suggested that I run a background check, I did not see the need and refused on the basis of it being an unneeded expense. We invited TS to dinner and as a show of good faith, TS gave me $100 “incentive money”. The agreed upon rent was $400 a month due on the first of each month.

Preparing the room and moving her in was more work than expected. Because of her injuries, the existing bunk bed needed to be replaced with the bed from her house, she needed help moving her stuff and I ended up taking a truck to her house to help. We sold our bunk bed on craigslist. Now she’s all moved in and we have her set up with her own room with a phone, and a computer (needed a monitor cable) with broadband. She was good to go.

Things started to get really weird from the moment she moved in. Her stories would change from one day to the next. She developed an attitude with TG. She was doing things to go out of her way to annoy us. She left a creepy note explaining her expectation for the house and made reference to being gone in 2 weeks. I was expecting a full months rent on the first of the month and immediately started regretting our decision.

It was at about this time that she extorted hundred of dollars from a friend of mine over a dog. This did not come out until later, but he had agreed to take some pictures of the dog so she could sell it (he’s a photographer for the Oregonian) but when he attempted to return the dog, she said that she would not take him back and that my friends owed her hundreds of dollars. This did not get straightened our for a few weeks.

TG began getting scared of TS, but kept the details to herself. She simply insisted that she move out as quickly as possible. I told TS that if she had any other options, that she should pursue them and that I would not be expecting any rent as long as she moved out quickly. She obliged, found some friends in Vancouver and we helped her move out. She returned a house key at that time.

She left the room trashed and did not take but half of her stuff. She immediately started spreading rumors about TG. Stories of pedophilia and drug abuse, all completely preposterous, but still damaging in our small community.

There was a three way phone call between TG, TS and my photographer friend. In that phone call, TS agreed to leave us alone and walk away. Part of this agreement was that we would be responsible for disposing of her unwanted belongings. I was not involved in that conversation.

We did not hear from TS for about a week.

On April 11th, TG called TS at her new home in Vancouver. TG had discovered that TS’s father (who had reportedly died of cancer a few weeks back) was alive and well. There was also some issues about lawyers looking for TS concerning some adopted children but I’m quite fuzzy on those issues. The reason for TG’s call in unclear, but I believe it was to help her in some way. TS’s lies were catching up to her and TG was feeling compassionate in some way. This lead to a series of lashings out that prompted me to seek council in the protection of my home.

After the phone call, TS called back repeatedly. TG hung up on her each time, and then TS left the following message:

“Hey [TG] you know, actually I have a few other things that I’d like to say to you and it’s probably better this way because I won’t be interrupted and it will be recorded. I know that you like to be involved and that you like to be in control and you have all these issues and you have your little secrets. Um, how would you like it if you like brother’s person that was running against him knew your secret and the type of friends you hug out with…or how would my brother who is a detective on the Portland Police like to find out that mike deals drugs out of his house and his little girl gets high. So I’m not willing to do any of this, and I’m not threatening…but seriously, just stay out of my life. Because when you kept all my stuff and said that you destroyed it I cut ties from you. And from [Me] and from [the photographer] actually the only person I talk to is [photographer’s family member] because he still owes me a bit of money for [the dog] and that’s that. My life is on the way of God and Christian…Christianity and I realize that’s what I was missing. And like I said, I’m sorry if our worlds were ever inconvenienced by each other. It was just an unfortunate incident. And we both happen to know secrets about each other that neither one of us really want to get out. So I just think it’s best that we smile and go on our way and don’t worry about it. You have enough issues, you don’t need to be worrying about mine because they’ll be taken care of on my own accord and on my own time. And… uh… I hope that you enjoy my stuff that’s at your house actually and like the tights that you borrowed from me that you think [me] will find sexy. And stuff like that. I really do. I hope every time that you look at it. you know, you remember that you took that stuff from someone who you said that it would be safe and to be trusted but I understand about your white elephant and I’ve done some researching on it and actually I have what you say for me, my heart also breaks for you. It does, and um.”

This was left at 10:28 on April 11.

Sounded like a final message to me. Perhaps more had gone on between TG and TS than I was aware of, or maybe she was just embellishing, but either way, it sounded like we were done with TS.

A little under an hour later, we received a phone call from Corporal Kathy McNicholas
Of Clark County:

“Hi I’m calling for [TG], this is corporal [officer's name], Vancouver Police. I received a phone harassment case from [TS] saying that you’ve called her Ex, her self as well as her family in Minnesota bothering them about her. And also won’t give her property back. Um, I need to advise you as an officer not to call her and bother her any more. Um, she’s also going to file a restraining order in Multnomah county as well as Clark county to prevent you from calling her or contacting her in the future and also contact with the civil department in Multnomah county to get her stuff back. She said your refusing to give her her stuff. So as far as we’re concerned, as long as she is residing in clark county, you can’t be calling her and harassing her. if you need something you need to go by other means. Thank you.”

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Easter Police

Easter Sunday I was visited twice by the police.

The first officer arrived with The Stalker and her crew in tow. He said she was here to get her stuff, so I handed him a key. I explained that when I got the call from Clark County I went out the next day and secured a storage locker. That same day I move all of The Junk into said locker.

A day or so later (last Thursday), I stopped by her work to drop off the key but she was not there. A coworker informed me that she was working the next day (Friday). I planned on stopping by while running errands, but The Pirate called to inform me that The Stalker had been bragging about using the cops to disrupt our Easter. I decided to wait and see for myself.

Sure enough, in the afternoon, Portland police showed up. The officer was reasonable, stating that The Stalker was her to get her belongings. He was surprised that I had gone to the trouble of renting a storage locker. I told him that I was fearful of my home being broken into. He delivered the key to the entourage and returned with a surprise for me: A key to my home. Seems The Stalker had held onto a key as some sort of insurance policy. Scary.

The officer hung around for a while and seemed to sympathize with my plight. I told him that I had never been contacted about plans to retrieve The Junk that was left in The Room. My only clue was a message left by Clark County. I felt things went swimmingly. I was wrong.

8 hours later a second set of officers arrived. Two this time. With a more sour tone. I was surprised. From the line of questioning it was obvious The Stalker had concocted a story where I had trashed her belongings. Nothing of the sort is true. I simply moved the boxes from my property to the storage locker. Nothing more. Somehow I was on the defensive.

These officers wanted to hear the crazy and threatening message that was left on the home phone. It was the only message The Stalker ever left. I'll try and post and edited transcript.

After answering the questions to the best of my ability and showing the officers The Room (slowly converting back into my office) as well as the motor home where The Junk was stored. The second encounter with the police was less comforting.

I'm starting this story in the middle and will attempt to fill in the blanks as I go. There are a few facts the reader might find interesting:

  • I've never had an argument with The Stalker.
  • I knew her for about a month.
  • I rented her a room for one week.
  • We are basically strangers to each other.
  • All I did was rent her a room.