There Had Been Bad Times As Well. Part 2: Stalker

There are two important unfortunate incidents that stand out in my mind when I think of things that could have happened to me. One was a direct result of where I was working, but the other was not. The one that can not be attributed to my place of employment is related because of the time of night I would return home and be on the streets. This also put me in danger and I was very aware of it. Had I not been so aware things could have ended badly for me.

I hate to admit it, but this was not the first time I had had a stalker. However this one lasted far longer than the other and this one was far more threatening than before.

This all started with a customer who came into my booth for a show. He was very tall and thin and looked remarkably like a slightly younger, cuter Tommy Lee. (Motley Crue) He had the same hair, facial features and clothing tastes. He was quite cute and seemed just like a guy who had too much time and money on his hands. He paid me a considerable amount and was not demanding in the least. He would talk about wanting a date with me and would describe this date. Nothing about it was ever unusual or strange. He also didn't put off an air of creep or psycho or anything. Nothing alarmed me in the least.

One day I had came out of the room and ventured up to the front desk. This was not something we were supposed to do but it was slow and I was the only girl there that night. I wanted to talk to the custodian for a second. As I had made it to the desk a guy came out from the dark areas where there were porn arcade machines. It was the Tommy Lee look alike. He came up to me and asked me for a hug. I reminded him that we were on video there and I could not make contact with him in any sort of way. He persisted and just forced a hug onto me. When he let me go he proclaimed that I looked familiar to him. At that moment I was thrust into a Doomed Generation scene. (The strange man proclaims that Rose McGowan was someone from his past but she denied any knowledge of him.)

I told the Custodian that I would be returning to my room so that he could watch me on the monitors to buzz me in once I reached the door. Tommy Lee lookalike went to my booth immediately and put in over a hundred dollars. I was indeed stuck with him or a while.

"Hey I know it is you. You are the girl from the dance club. You and I danced all night but I couldn't find you later as I was leaving. I had hoped to steal a kiss from you then." He said.

"I am sorry to tell you, but I have never been to that dance club. It is not my style." I answered.

"Yes it is, come on! I know it is you. I would never forget your face it haunts my dreams." He answered trying to persuade me.

"Really, you have the wrong person. Maybe I look like this lady you are thinking about. I can assure you though that it isn't me." I said trying to sound as genuine as possible. This was starting to irritate me.

"Oh, you are playing such games. You are torturing me, you know that? You really get into my head like this. I know it's you but it's fine with me if you want to pretend it isn't you." He answered.

I had nothing to say so I just stayed quiet. It was a pointless argument and he was convinced he was right. I just continued on with the show.

There was one thing about him though that had caught me by surprise. I had never noticed the large gauged Prince Albert piercing he had. Maybe I just stopped noticing things like that I suppose I stopped really looking at the customers long ago. He was tapping it up against the glass and I momentarily mused the idea of someone having a metal ring that fat in that delicate spot. What is the attraction?

These visits would continue and the frequency would grow. After a few weeks he began to get even more strange. He began to tell me stories about what I had done during the day all week. Apparently he had caught sight of me going into my apartment and even without the disguise he had recognised me. This was something as at work I had worn a blond wig, light makeup and light coloured girlie clothing. The lighting was always super dim and shadowed my face intentionally. I had my own light I would install every shift for this very purpose. In real life I had black and purple hair, wore dark makeup and dark clothing. Everyone I had shown the pictures too would agree that it looked nothing like me and they were hard pressed to believe that it was the same person. These are people that know me!

Soon this became the normal conversation: What I had been doing all week. He had kept detailed notes even observing who I spent my time with. The thing was that no matter how alert I was, I had never even seen him around. It had begun to drive me crazy. Everywhere I went I looked around searching to pick his face out of the crowd of people. I watched for him when I left my apartment and watched for him when I returned. It had more than creeped me out to my breaking point, but there was nothing I could do about it as he wasn't threatening me at that time.

The threats came to me much later and were directed at my male friend. Tommy Lee lookalike asked me who the man was that I had been seen with leaving my apartment. (one of my roommates) He described him in great detail even described what he had been wearing. I told him it was none of his business then he said he saw the guy give me a kiss on the cheek. (Big deal eh?) He said that if it was my boyfriend that he would have to "do something about it." What he intended to do, he wouldn't say. He would make these vague threats many more times, but I had already alerted my roommate about it.

One night, it was late and I didn't work that night. I had been on the veranda of my apartment (4th floor) and in the windows of the condo across the street I saw the image of the man not unlike my stalker. I snuck a quick peek over the ledge and saw him standing below in front of the front door. (Was he waiting for someone to leave so he could sneak in?) So I crept as quietly as possible inside to alert my female roommate. She walked outside nonchalantly and grabbed the glass ash tray. She headed for the railing. looked down then dropped the whole thing right on him complete with cigarette butts and all. I stayed back out of view but she just continued to lean out over the railing looking straight down at him.

"Oops! I must be really clumsy. What are you doing there by the door? You don't live here." She shouted laughing.

"Bitch! You hit me with that and now I am covered in ash and dirt. You did that on purpose." He spat up at her.

"No I am just fat and clumsy. I have short little arms and occasionally things just slip. Ooops!"
She continued laughing told him to get lost then came back inside.

The stalker was not seen in front of my building again for some time. Upon doing more research it turns out he worked a few blocks from my apartment and he lived downtown. The moron had left his home phone number at the desk for me once and I looked it up on reverse search. I found out his where he worked when I had my male friend call the number and ask for him. After doing more research I found that this man was married! I thought about telling his wife about his habits but decided against it. I couldn't be sure that she would care or that she wasn't in on it. I didn't know the status of their relationship and didn't want to get him kicked out of his house because this way I had not way of knowing where he would be. I preferred knowing where he laid his head at night.

This went on for several weeks. I had received notes taped to the lobby door, on my car, in my mail.... I had received notes at work as well. I was getting tired of it and wanted it to end. Then suddenly I had received a call while at work from a strange woman. I didn't take the call but she just kept calling back until the custodian was annoyed and begged me to take the call. I did and it turned out to be his wife. Apparently she found his notebook and was pissed off about it. I explained to her that I was innocent of it and the victim. She said she knew that and felt sorry for me. She told me her full name and his full name (Which I already knew) She told me that if I saw him again I was to tell him that XXXXXXXXXX said he was fucked. His shit was about to be out on the street and that included his prized antique guitar. She said this was sure to get him to leave.

Sure enough not much later, he arrived. He was rather grumpy and mad at me. He was mad because I was ignoring his advances and he felt it was time we "acted on our mutual feelings." I couldn't have asked for a better set up! I told him what she said and he bolted right out of there faster than I could blink. Thankfully he had already put a ton of money in so I at least got something for my trouble. I didn't see him in there ever again.