Anonymous Postcard Concerning My Safety (Update! Conclusion!)
So tonight I wrote a blog about discovering a cassette tape in my apartment that turned out to be a dream diary kept by the previous resident. The reason I wrote it was because I was going through it again today, looking for some vocal samples to add to a song that's going on my new record. You can read that blog here: http://witnessthinks.com/?p=438
I had sent a few friends some audio clips so they could see how weird the recordings are. I then got the idea to find the previous resident and send her tape back to her, so I went down to where the mailbox was and looked next to the buzzer see that her name was the one I remembered. It was. While I was down there, I decided to pick up my mail. There were four envelopes (bills) and a post card. And in one of the most disgustingly coincidental moments of life...this is what was on the post card.
To begin, let me clarify a few things.
1. Yes. The girl's name is in fact the name of the girl who lived there before me.
2. I would prefer that if you respond to this, that you don't use her name when you post. Let's refer to her as KL. The reason for this, is because I don't need google searches redirecting to here. (See edit for changes*)
3. The following acronyms are used in the letter. LKA (Last Known Address) and PHP (Powderhorn Park-the neighborhood I live in.)
4. I blocked out my address on the postcard. The LKA listed on the back is in my neighborhood, meaning that when she moved out, she moved somewhere not very far from where I am now.
What I did...
I talked to the neighbors across the hall. They were freaked out. They remember her. The said that she was a hippie, kind of mean, let her cat walk around in the hallway a lot. The knew that she was an Eckist (if you read the blog I posted, you'll see what this means) and a lesbian. The last two facts directly link her. KL is the same girl who made the dream diary I found.
More facts...
The number in the upper left hand corner of the front seems to be a Minnesota court case number. (See edit for changes*) Unfortunately, the case number doesn't seem to be in any court record directories offered online. However, the number is way too close to be anything else. A google search brings you to a similar Minnesota case. It's gotta be what it is.
Last summer, I was randomly approached by someone driving in front of my house. They asked me if I knew the person who lived in a certain apartment number. That apartment number was mine. I told them that. They asked if I lived with KL. I told them I don't, but i think that she lived there before me because I sometimes still get her mail.
Any google searches and internet detective work has turned up nothing of interest so far. A lot of dead ends.
What I'm doing...
Tomorrow morning, I'm going to the clerk of the courts to see if the case number is on file in their physical offices and getting a copy.
Then, I'm going to the police to give them a copy of the letter and the case record. (For legal purposes, should I need them)
Then, I'm going to my landlord and demanding my locks be changed.
So what are your thoughts?
The number one theory shared by myself and friends was that the person I was approached by in the summer was a private investigator. I think that very same person either works for or is the anonymous "W". I think that they think there is a possibility that I'm harboring KL and they want me to make her contact with whoever it is. I don't know why they gave me her last known address, though. And what does "media after march 2010" mean? As evidenced by the constant use of quotations whenever they reference her name, they clearly believe KL to be an alias.
What the fuck is wrong with my life?
In b4 whirly.
(I removed her name, LKA and a few digits of the case number to protect her. See my update in this thread for reasons why.)
cv is for civil case, i searched in minn database, maybe the case hasn't been filed? looking up the el name came up with a few hits though , looks like she may owe $$
could be an eckist thing, in the same vein as scientology. they've caught some heat for being cultish. it's possible that she's in the same boat as shamwow guy.
also, that note is signed W because you mailed it to yourself from the future. start checking for hidden codes and messages. shouldn't be too hard, imean you wrote it...
I'm assuming that "media after March" means that he's about to take whatever this is public. It reads like a deadline and the bullet list above could be the charges he's going to levy against her.
Location: Alabama by way of Colorado by way of Maryland
Posts: 3,709
This stuff is wild. I fully cosign the future W theory. Lol. Just like the Lake House or something...
Quote:
Originally Posted by professionaljetsetter
I'm assuming that "media after March" means that he's about to take whatever this is public. It reads like a deadline and the bullet list above could be the charges he's going to levy against her.
I thought that it meant the anonymous W was going to send media (as in photographs or video) to you... or that he is trying to blackmail kL with it. I think you are right in assuming that this W person believes you are in cahoots with kL and are trying to keep her safe or something.
It does sound like a thinly veiled threat, and I'm glad you are going to the authorities with it.
I don't know much about the eckish thing at all... but cults are no good. My first boyfriend's mother was involved in some cult for awhile before he was born, and her parents actually paid someone to kidnap her to get her home and away from the cult so she could be deprogrammed.
So I woke up early today and headed down to city hall in order to access the court record using the number on the upper left hand on the front of the postcard. I was dressed to the nines, because my experience working for law firms taught me that putting on a little charm for the clerks can get you pretty far.
I went down to the vault where the files are kept. I gave the woman the file number listed at the top of the postcard and she disappeared into the back room. I was crazy with anticipation. I knew when came back, I was going to be holding the answers to the situation I had so much anxiety over last night. How many times do you actually get the answers for the unexplainable in life?
When she came back, she notified me that the file was not there. It was actually in a judge's chambers and that I would need to go there in order to get the file from one of her secretaries. I made my way up 15 floors, found her chambers, gave my ID as collateral and was given a fairly thick little file with the name of our lady in question on the manila folder. I asked where I can view this file and make copies. Turns out it's the vault I was just in. Back down 15 floors and back through security. Please try to imagine how badass I felt.
Discovery
Within the first few pages of the file, I noticed a very familiar handwriting.
It was the same of the "W" who had sent me the postcard.
He had wrote a letter to the judge letting her know that KL is a crazy person and that she needs to seek help as much as possible. Which is why he's working hard to find to her.
As I proceed through the file, I come to the realization that KL is not the person with a mental illness. It's him.
Apparently, the two of them had worked together in California in the 90s and had reconnected via the internet a year or so ago. They had some brief correspondence and decided to become penpals. After a few letters KL stopped responding, at which point, he began to send letters asking if she was okay. She never responded. So he continued sending letters demanding that she respond for 6 MONTHS STRAIGHT. At one point, he went as far as contacting various police stations asking them to do a "well being check" on her.
Fed up, she had sent him a letter letting him know that she wants him to leave her alone and that she's getting scared of him. Apparently confused by this and claiming her to "no longer resemble the person he was once friends with", he begins addressing the letters to "(The Person Pretending To Be) KL". She still does not respond and decides to alleviate the problem by moving away. (This is when I moved in.)
At this point, he actually travels to Minneapolis looking for her. He notifies the police that he is looking for a "missing person". (This was all contained in an itinerary he sent to the judge). He evens mentioning speaking to the man who is the new resident of her old apartment in the park. (Me.)
He manages to track down her new address by going through the postal service and finding her new forwarded mailing address and leaves a letter on the door of her new place. Completely petrified, she decides to press charges and file a restraining order.
I made copies of most of the file, which contains the creepy letters he sent the (female) judge, two letter he sent KL and the contents of her KL's restraining order form. I have his name, address and the address of his family. I made a copy of the post card he sent me and wrote a brief letter to the judge as to why I borrowed her file and left a copy of the letter he had sent me with her secretary to be delivered to her with my contact info.
I altered the photographs of the original post card as to obscure KL's real name, her info and the court case number. I'm sure the last thing this girl needs is more people peering into her private life.
Answers
Now that we recognize that "W" is a stalker, it puts the original postcard in a new light.
We can assume that he believes I possibly have contact to her and that I can "prevent her problems from disrupting my life" by making her return his phone calls. I'm fairly certain he thinks that the case file is in his favor and that I would discover it and join his side. If I get another threatening letter, I'd be happy to let him join the leagues of Whirlygirl in the restraining order department. If I get another visit, I'm not too concerned. Dude was small enough for me to handle and I own a pitbull.
Media After March is still a mystery.
But my detective skills have increased ten fold since this began and I made what I believe to be a fairly logical deduction...
The "W"?
It's an upside down "M".
The file says his first name is Michael.
See wut i did thar?
It's actually obvious what's going on here, and fuck if my mind isn't blown
John, you are in fact W. Think about it kids-he magically finds a tape of this girls most intimate moments,and the very next day this happens? And there's no actually proof as to who the "Real" stalker is aside from the W being an upside M, followed by our W saying "See what I did there" because he in fact is W, or M, or whatever, so long as hes really the stalker.
It's all an elaborate scheme to cover his tracks-even the bogus story about law firm work to explain why he knows so much about the court system. In truth, John's simply been to court lots, mostly for restraining orders and harassment suits. He's gone all Swimfan out there in Minneapolis
Shit,and now that I've found it out, he'll probably drive here in a dress and hack me to bits with a spoon...
It's actually obvious what's going on here, and fuck if my mind isn't blown
John, you are in fact W. Think about it kids-he magically finds a tape of this girls most intimate moments,and the very next day this happens? And there's no actually proof as to who the "Real" stalker is aside from the W being an upside M, followed by our W saying "See what I did there" because he in fact is W, or M, or whatever, so long as hes really the stalker.
It's all an elaborate scheme to cover his tracks
don't fucking lie to me. you knew what this was.
Quote:
BTW. I got that beat you sent to me when you appeared briefly on gmail and disappeared like the wind. It's fucking amazing, man.
I was dressed to the nines, because my experience working for law firms taught me that putting on a little charm for the clerks can get you pretty far.
ok i'm picturing you in white spats
Quote:
Originally Posted by Witness
He had wrote a letter to the judge letting her know that EL is a crazy person and that she needs to seek help as much as possible. Which is why he's working hard to find to her.
As I proceed through the file, I come to the realization that EL is not the person with a mental illness. It's him.
wow, what a twist- serious
sounds like you're going to be getting even more involved. what do you think you'll do from here? feel it out a bit?
Location: Alabama by way of Colorado by way of Maryland
Posts: 3,709
Quote:
Originally Posted by nym
i bet he even turned the card upside down to write M as a W.
who starts a letter with a curl like that?
Um, my maiden name starts with a W and my dad starts his W's almost exactly like that...
But anyway... this isn't really that surprising to me that the postcard writer is nutty... but it is scary and sad.
When I first read your blog, I was going to post something about your using that girl's journal in a recording... but I didn't. Now I am going to.
It kind of turned my stomach a little bit. Not because I thought you were going to make a million dollars off of it or anything, but it still felt like exploitation of someone's very personal, very private material - without her permission. Imagine if she somehow randomly found your song, realized it was her voice or her story in the background, and had a complete fucking meltdown because she knows that this creep is out there chasing her around....
Well, I wouldn't normally do a Magic's Greatest Secrets Finally Revealed, but...
When you hear the actual recording, you'll recognize that it was done tastefully.
It's not like I included a solid 5 minutes of unedited tape recordings of her talking about her personal life. In fact, while there is a good amount of some genuinely ridiculous stuff on here, I edited the recording heavily to make it fit the tone of the song. It's only part of about 15-20 seconds of the actual song and is obscured within the intro.
In more detail? I specifically cut fragments of sentences and phrases that are under 3 seconds long and stitched them together into a rather abstract sentence. If you and I had a conversation on the phone, I could do the same thing to your voice, put it on a record and you probably wouldn't even know it was you when I played it for you. Her identity is completely safe. Trust me on this one. When you hear it, you'll feel silly for being concerned.
Believe me, I wouldn't do anything to compromise her safety. As it stands, I'm in just as dangerous a position as she is. More on that in a bit.
To really jettison this thread into Hall of Fame territory, though, I'll be posting another massive update in the next few minutes. Stay tuned.
Location: Alabama by way of Colorado by way of Maryland
Posts: 3,709
Quote:
Originally Posted by Witness
If you and I had a conversation on the phone, I could do the same thing to your voice, put it on a record and you probably wouldn't even know it was you when I played it for you
Quote:
Originally Posted by Witness
Her identity is completely safe.
Mmkay. In that case I kind of hope you name the song Media After March 2010.
I received a call from the judge who read a copy of the letter I left for her.
She feels it may be violating his restraining order and is going to give it to the police.
I suppose the possibility of me being a witness (lul) is out there, so I'm not sure how long I can leave this thread or the documents up, but here's a peek at the letters this guy was sending. I redacted all personal info.
"how...disappointing" What a fucking creep.
Following letter contains the acronym "RO" (Restraining Order) and the word "Kender" which is actually a race in Dungeons and Dragons.
And finally here's a letter he wrote to the judge, detailing his creepy little trip to Minneapolis where he met me in the park. Note that he refuses to acknowledge that the girl who served him a restraining order and the one he knew are the same person.
Okai.
Detective time over.
I have to go back to working on music again.
kthxbye
Anonymous Postcard Concerning My Safety (Update! Conclusion!)
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