I recently read an article about an ESPN announcer, named Steve Phillips, whose family was stalked by a crazy co-worker, Brooke Hundley, via texts, facebook, and emails. Phillips admitted to having a brief affair with Hundley over the past summer, but stated that it had ended months ago. Hundley not only sent texts to Phillip’s wife, Marni, but also contacted their 16-year old son, via facebook. She pretended to be in his Spanish class, and told him that she had overheard someone talking about his father’s affair at a football game. She said that she had gone through a similar situation with her parents, and encouraged him to talk to her. The son stated, “She initiated every conversation. She began to ask me very personal questions about my family including our whereabouts, family plans for the summer, if we were going on vacation brother including ages and birthdays and various facts about there athletic schedules and knowledge about my fathers affair, she also questioned me about some of my friends, would often times make comments of how lick my mom was to marry a guy with money and not have to work, she would ask how often my parents were out of the house. “ She even made flirtatious comments, that he described as very “awkward.” When he didn’t respond immediately, she would get impatient, and ask what was wrong. Eventually, she asked for their home phone number, because “her mother needed to contact her parents about the PTA.” He declined, but to her annoyance. Started making comments about his mother that seemed jealous, and almost angry. She even talked about his house. By August, he started to receive numerous friend requests from “Brooke Hundley,” but declined them all. Then he received a friend request from another classmate (actually Hundley), to which he accepted. Eventually, she asked for his home phone number, because, again, her parents need to contact his parents. He didn’t answer, and got concerned. On August 19th, Hundley showed up at the Phillip’s house, dropping off a letter for Marni Phillips, but when Marni and his younger son returned, Brooke Hundley panicked, drove into a stone pillar, and drove across the lawn, prompting Marni to call the police. After the incident, the 16-year old son received a message from riorgirr4life, saying that she went to his house, but when his mom came home, got scarred. This freaked home out. He checked the 2nd classmates profile, and found that he was her only friend. He checked his friends, and found that he was friends with the actual classmate, who had 580 friends. He showed him mother, who was also being harassed by Hundley. In her texts, she used information that she had found out from the son, to try to convince Marni that her relationship with his husband was real. She used specific events, and facts about the Philips family to rattle Marni. She was eventually caught, but Marni Phillips is now sure her husband.
This is an example of how technology can have a negative effect on the modern world. It makes it easier to commit crimes, and in this case, find out a lot of personal information about other people. It is always important to know that you never really know a person online.
Links to Police Reports and Statements:
Article
LETTER: MISTRESS TO THE WIFE
STATEMENT FROM THEIR TEENAGE SON
Eugh, this is really creepy. It goes to show just how much we are in danger of being found out if we don't keep our private information to ourselves when we're online.
ReplyDeleteThis just proves that things stored online or on another other electronic server are not private and can be viewed by the public. Google had an issue with this with their google talk service. Voicemails left on the service were showing up as search results that people could then view online.
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