Stalkers

Photo:  Maybe Sparrow Photography and Design

An article about the ESPN reporter who was spied on in her hotel room infuriated me that the crime is punished so lightly.  Erin Andrews says she still gets perverted phone calls about the nude footage the stalker leaked. Fans still yell, "I've seen you naked!"

"People don't understand that while I wasn't physically touched, I was violated," Erin said in an interview.*  

I get that.

...I'm at your window. A man with a deep voice on the phone was on the other end of the phone. Lurking. Threatening.

I dialed 911 and hid in a closet until police arrived.  They looked for footprints in the snow or other signs of an intruder but found nothing.

For a while, the TV newsroom was one of the only places that felt safe to me.  Security is always tight to keep someone from hijacking a live broadcast.

Safe...until the night a man was waiting for me in the lobby.

As he came toward me, it looked like he was hiding something behind his back. Instinct said to grab the newsroom door before it shut and locked. I bolted back inside without asking any questions.

"Do you know the man in the lobby?"  I asked our producer.  The guard was supposed to notify him if a visitor came during a broadcast. The guard never did.

Who knows why the stranger showed up near midnight claiming to be my boyfriend.  He fled before police arrived. The security breach cost the guard his job but things could have been far worse. 

Erin's stalker, a salesman she had never met, got 30 months in jail .  Many stalkers never spend a day behind bars.  

And the victims?  "I'm traumatized every day," Erin says, "This will never be over."*
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*Read Erin Andrew's Marie Claire article for advice on handling stalking

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