I got in a political argument with some clown on Facebook. He managed to retrieve my wife’s cell phone number and our home phone which is unlisted and technically just provided by our Internet company that we never use.
None our personal info is really available on Facebook and our profiles are pretty locked down, but he called my wife’s phone a few times last week which she has blocked and never answers. Comes up as anonymous on her id.
He tried our home phone 16 times which I ignored, everything stopped, he called again tonight. I decided to answer. He said he knows where I live my wife and daughters name, and our address. He never gave out that though and that he is coming to kill us. Said that on the line
I have called my local police department. But this is rural Nebraska they said they can’t do anything or have our phone companies run a trace.
Is there anything I can do to figure out who this guy is?
Buy a handgun (or a rifle if money’s no object), let me know a budget and I can talk you through what your best options are there if you’d like. I was going to say security system, but a more cost effective solution might be to get deadbolts on all exterior doors (easier the smaller your house is and even easier if you’re in an apartment that’ll let you)
Get something on your phones to record conversations. Don’t delete your voicemail
Home security.
Get a basic gun. Practice at a range. If you can afford it, invest in security cameras.
I guess you could involve a lawyer if the situation becomes untenable.
Don’t panic; theres a 99%+ chance you’ll be fine.
But don’t ignore the 1%. To all the “it’s just an internet troll” folks: see Jonathan Ross, where one such angry troll shot him dead, just because:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Joss
May he rest in peace :(
Shotgun to be specific
The sound of someone racking a 12 gauge is enough to make most people stop dead in their tracks and evaluate their life choices.
Nah keep one in the chamber so you don’t have to worry about it and get another shell in the tube.
As i don’t want to divulge too much, some information will be sporatic/somewhat improper.
My family dealt with a neighbor, which of whom I can only describe as a plurality of serial harassers. By that I mean we were not the first, nor the last family for this entire family to explicitly target and fixate on for at least months on end. This was before 2016 to add (they ended up right where you’d expect).
Not just a not ring camera. Seriously DM me and im more than willing to help on the technical side of setting up a Frigate local NVR. Shouldnt cost your more than $200. If you go the home assistant route, it makes it trivial to set up an alarm system with zigbee or simular devices.
Now i have to be careful, among other things the neighbor was having their kids steal our mail, we recorded evidence of such, but they seemingly had a friend in the PD. Im not saying to expect this or necessarily take my advice, but especially being a red area, the cops will not help you if it comes to it. They will be 15 minutes after a shooting is called in.
We had evideable damage and video of one of their kids trying to break in our garage.
They still put my parents enployement at the time in jeopardy.
You get the 2A side of that, but ideally you want to avoid that entirely.
We eventually put up proper cameras, and some of the derangement subsided, floodlights are of particular use.
You cannot let yourself live in paranoia. But similarly you cannot be caught with your pants down.
We were in a ranch, thus no upstairs. They would shine flashlights at our windows. Laser pointer to the eyes would stop them quick.
Your situation is a lot more - forward. But there are pieces of information i believe you could use to your benefit in a preparedness scenario.
Again, DM me if you need any technical help, I’ll be happy to
PS definitely be done with FB. Theres a lot more shit than this one clown to do with that place. Ive been trying to avert my SOs father from something similar as well, but FB is another tool of this admin ib many ways
If someone is stealing your mail, don’t involve the police. That is a task for the postal inspection service, and they don’t play. They are generally the only enforcement branch for postal issues, unless an agreement has been filed for local or other enforcement agencies.
Isn’t Frank Rizzo also one of the monikers used by “The Jerky Boys”? The prank calling group from the 90’s that used to make tapes?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jerky_Boys
Yup…
Frank Rizzo – an extremely abrasive, foul-mouthed blue-collar Italian-American New Yorker with bizarre complaints and requests (voiced by Johnny Brennan). Frank curses repeatedly at a potential employer during an inquiry about a job, and accuses the Mickey Mouse character at Disney World of being sexually inappropriate with his children.
Get a gun and learn how to use it.
But as other commenters have said, if he was actually intending on killing you, it’d be real stupid to call you in advance to say so. Most likely just wants to scare you.
Dangerous logic to assume escalation isn’t likely. If this person gets frustrated enough or gets radicalized enough OP will be first on their list.
I didn’t say it categorically wouldn’t happen, just that if that was the person’s real intentions then they’ve been very stupid about it. If you’re going to commit a murder don’t create evidence pointing to you. Like the other commenter said, a gun and self defence skills will cover you in both cases.
Your characterization of a rational, well adjusted individual not broadcasting premeditated violence is logical. However, a rational person would not make threats toward an internet stranger by telephone. That disqualifies this individual from rational which is why I would consider them extremely dangerous. After seeing Jan 6 participants get pardoned and a 24/7 feed of “us vs. them” propaganda, rationality as a constraint is off the table. That alone should scare OP. Indeed, should scare us all.
If he were going to physically harm you or your family in any way, he wouldn’t be harassing you on the phone. He’s legit just trying to scare you.
The best approach here is to “grey rock” him, which in this case just means not answering. You said you don’t use the home phone so just disconnect whatever device. You said your wife has blocked him so that’s sorted. Close your fb account or don’t log in or whatever.
Call the police and make an actual report to get an actual report number. Here any kind of threat made over a “wire service” is a crime. They may not investigate but that’s not the point, in the infinitessimal chance the guy escalates, you want some history.
Refresh home security without going nuts. Maybe a
ringdoor camera, make sure window locks are installed.Then just go about your life, but maybe avoid throw down arguments on fb.
Edit: don’t buy a ring camera.
Also if he is threatening a minor then that escalates things legally.
The report number is very important. Cops want to brush off stuff that involves protecting people in my experience, buy having evidence of all this is vital if he starts stalking or something like that. He’s unlikely to escalate directly to shooting, but he is at risk of escalation
Please do not buy Ring cameras, Amazons vast surveillance network is a privacy nightmare and is also regularly accessed by ICE and other law enforcement.
Eufy cameras can be used with a home base and stay offline, recording to the SD card in the base. Or if you’re into it, there are many self hosting options that give you much more control and options.
This. This. A thousand times a thousand times, yes. Nobody should be blindly trusting their safety to Amazon, one of the worst abusers of trust and privacy.
(Plus they’re the most common hardware… Guess what’s getting targeted for mass exploits?)
Almost anything is better than giving Amazon access to your home.
The only thing worse than giving info to Amazon, is having no security for your home. I have a ring camera that was a gift from my previous employer when I moved states and I’m very glad to have it. It faces my street, where anybody can see anyways so privacy is not a concern. I’d never put ring cameras inside or in the rear of my house, and would rather not use ring but given what a life saver it has been since i bought my house several times, i will not be doin without until I can replace with a offline system. But being able to check in at work is nice, and any security is better than no security. Hell just bolting an old cctv camera to the side of your house without hooking it up is better than nothing.
That ring camera is still absolutely a privacy threat, if not to you, than to your neighbors. Ring is partnering with flock on mass surveillance with facial recognition. That camera belongs to ICE just as much as it belongs to you, if not more since they can have AI “watch” it 24x7.
You know the person’s Facebook name? That might help.
Maybe this? https://www.ic3.gov/
