This story sounds like a bad Lifetime movie – a suspense/drama thriller that goes beyond the norm of what “normal” people will do. I can’t imagine how this poor woman has lived out such a real nightmare for so many years.

A Seattle-area man was given a 26 1/2-year prison term for waging a 17-year campaign of harassment against a former classmate he met in middle school. Prosecutors are calling this the longest sentence for stalking in memory.

Shawn Moul, 31, passively accepted the sentence last week which came about six months after being convicted on two felony counts of stalking and 19 counts of violating anti-harassment orders.

Moul began stalking classmate Tracy Lundeen in 1994, shortly after Lundeen saw him at the school library struggling with his homework and offered to help him. Lundeen said Moul began following her and wrote her more than 100 letters, alternately threatening her and vowing to kill himself. He also contacted Lundeen’s family members, demanding that she contact him.

Moul has already served prison time for repeatedly violating a no-contact order, having been sentenced to eight years in prison in 2001. Apparently, eight years wasn’t enough to teach him a lesson because after his release, he again initiated contact through Lundeen’s sister.

In court, Lundeen spoke of the long nightmare Moul has made her and her family endure. “We never asked for this,” Lundeen said. “We have, from the beginning, asked for one thing, and that’s to be left alone.”

She also addressed her stalker directly in court, saying: “Mr. Moul , please listen to me. I don’t love you. I don’t like you. I don’t intend to ever be with you. Please quit trying to contact me or my other family members.”

Lundeen added she believes that until Mr. Moul is dead, “nothing changes,” the Seattle Times reported.

Moul also spoke at his sentencing and did not oppose the lengthy prison term. “I don’t mind being in custody for the rest of my life,” he said.

Maybe now Tracy and her family can find some peace. Mr. Moul could use some psychiatric help.

The prosecutor’s office has taken steps to ensure Moul is unable to send Lundeen letters from prison.                                               

I know of a woman who was stalked for one year. It was difficult to collect evidence. For example, she would see his car parked in the front of her house, but when she ran out to take a picture or video, he would drive away.

If you need help building a case, you can contact MSI Detective Services. You should also try to take as many protective measures as possible such as carrying pepper spray and a personal alarm. Some states will allow you to purchase a stun gun. Our U-Spy website, under “Personal Defense/Stun Guns,” has a list of states where we cannot ship stun guns and a link for laws in your area.

Always let someone know where you are going. Stalking is being taken much more seriously than it has in the past. Do not be embarrassed to ask people for help. 
Read story@ msnbc

Other Source: mynorthwest.com

Occasionally a robber chooses the wrong victim and ends up becoming the target. This was the case with a robbery in downtown Chicago.

A 50-year-old woman gave a robber a religious lecture last Friday after chasing him for almost a mile and cornering him in an alley, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The incident occurred shortly after midnight when the woman was riding a Chicago Transit Authority bus in the Loop. Jenar Sanders, 18, grabbed her wallet from her purse, jumped off the bus at Huron and State streets and made a run for it.

The woman began chasing Sanders and alerting others as she ran down the street. A hotel staff member at the Omni Hotel and the CTA bus driver notified police, officers said.

The chase ended with Sanders cornered in an alley off Superior Street between Wabash Avenue and Rush Street. He was surrounded by the victim and others who had joined the chase.

“She kept telling him God didn’t want him to steal her wallet,” a police source told the Tribune.

Sanders is 6-foot-3 and weighs 270 pounds. The woman is 5-foot-8 and a little more than half his weight.

“The woman’s lucky,” a police officer told the Tribune. “She grabbed him. She was lucky this guy wasn’t a violent guy. They had him in an alley without an exit. He’s a fairly substantial man.”

I would agree with the police officer. I had a similar incident occur when I was 18 years old. As I was entering the bank where I worked, a young women tried to steal my purse. I beat her up, dragged her into the bank and left her in the lobby while I and my co-workers hid behind the teller glass window waiting for the police to come. I am not a large woman, but I used to have a lot of sassy spunk.

As I have aged and become wiser, I would now just give up the wallet. First of all, I can’t run as fast as I once could, but secondly, there are far too many violent people out there and it’s not worth losing your life or getting seriously injured. Now I carry pepper spray and an alarm in case I am faced with a life or death situation – in which case I think that 18 year-old spunk would kick in. It was instinctive to fight back, now my instincts would tell me to let it go.

I am glad the woman was not harmed and that others joined in the effort to help her.  

Sanders was arrested by two officers at 12:35 a.m. He admitted to the crime and was charged with theft.

Read story@msnbc

A Wisconsin man charged with domestic abuse told police that a “ghost” had attacked his wife and was responsible for her injuries.

The weird story by Michael West, 41, did not provide much of a defense as police arrested him for strangulation, battery, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest.

After responding to a report of a domestic dispute on Jan. 15, at the West residence in Fond du Lac, Wis., police found West’s wife crying and bleeding from the nose. Drops of blood stained areas of the kitchen and her Packers’ jersey.

The woman told police her husband repeatedly punched her in the face and attempted to strangle her “to the point that [her] vision went black and [she] felt like she was going to pass out,” the report said. In a criminal complaint, the victim says that when she tried to dial 911, her husband punched her in the face.

Police said West appeared intoxicated and was yelling and swearing at the two officers questioning him. The man claimed his wife had fallen several times, causing her to sustain injuries to her face and neck.

When pressed by a cop–who pointed to marks on the woman’s neck–the intoxicated West replied with slurred speech and shifted his story. “A ghost did it,” he said.

After a struggle, he was handcuffed and transported to the county lockup, where he remains in custody in lieu of $1000 bail.

His wife told police the fight was started over the impending foreclosure on their home.

Sources: MSNBC and The Smoking Gun

As you may have read, many companies and government agencies are installing GPS Tracking Devices to their fleets of vehicles used by employees to try and reign in costs and abuse. There are also safety considerations for employees and customers as some examples mentioned below describe. These devices can also provide safety for police officers in distress, ambulances, etc

DCF Commissioner Joette Katz estimates these GPS devices will save the state nearly $250,000 in the first year by being able to provide data on the misuse of its vehicles, verify overtime hours, and may potentially save 20% on fuel consumption. The state’s legislature’s research arm reported that it spent $15.7 million on gas alone in fiscal 2008. Since then, the state has taken steps to reduce its fleet by 800 cars. The agency also proposes cutting overtime by 10 percent for a savings of $1.7 million next year, and Butterfield said GPS tracking devices will help DCF do that.

If the proposal were to be enacted, nearly one-quarter of the states 3,243-vehicle fleet could be tracked.

Patrick Johnson, who is the president of Oak Hill, Connecticut’s largest nonprofit agency, was able to disprove allegations that one of his employees injured a client while driving him to an appointment by presenting the data extracted from the GPS tracking device, which showed that the vehicle never stopped so that the driver could not have committed the alleged offense.

It’s a real safety and protection for our employees,” said Johnson of Oak Hill, which provides services for those with intellectual and physical disabilities.

Johnson has attached GPS tracking devices on his entire fleet of 184 vans. The information collected from the tracking devices is able to show in real time the vehicle’s location and is even able to send him notifications if the driver exceeds the speed limit by more than 5 mph.

Butterfield got the idea to install the GPS devices for this proposal at DCF from Oak Hill. She believes that being able to determine where her employees are and if they are speeding are highly valuable and appealing. “It’s added safety,” she said of her social workers, who travel to stranger’s homes daily to investigate unsafe living conditions for children.

Fortune 500 companies such as UPS and FedEx already use GPS tracking technology to guard themselves against missing deliveries and ensuring that their drivers use the best routes. The use of these GPS tracking devices also helps to safeguard against misuse of valuable company time, costly fuel, and can provide greater safety and accountability for drivers.

The U-Spy Store sells several types of GPS Trackers. GPS Real-Time or Live Tracking devices allow information to be sent immediately to an online server that you can access anywhere the Internet is available.  All real-time units have a one-time activation fee as well as a monthly service fee.  Some units have prepaid long term plans that would reduce the monthly service fee.

Read entire story@ landairsea