A story until the police arrest the person who has been stalked by locating the address with Instagram or a dating application
Steven Renwick, CEO of SaaS startup
How we turned the tables to catch my sister's Bumble stalker | by Steven Renwick | Jan, 2023 | Medium
https://major-grooves.medium.com/how-we-turned-the-tables-to-catch-my-sisters-bumble-stalker-e1979d39670d
Early in the morning at the end of 2021, Mr. Renwick's sister, who lives in Scotland, was told by a neighbor that 'someone has graffitied on your car.' Looking at the graffiti picture actually taken by my sister, you can see that the words such as 'LESBIAN' are written by tracing the dust on the car. My sister was driving on the highway every day to work, and the car was always dusty.
The nasty graffiti continued, and two or three times a week my sister had to wash the dust off her car before she left for work. The content of the graffiti was very childish, and Mr. Renwick and other brothers, who were consulted by his sister, speculated that it was probably the work of a free teenager.
Mr. Renwick thought that if a teenager was the culprit, he would eventually get bored and stop, but after that the mischief escalated, breaking eggs by hitting the car and developing into damage such as smearing mud and sauce. He said he did. The picture below shows the egg hitting the rear of the car and the contents dripping.
My sister, who saw the escalation of damage as a problem, set up a security camera with a motion detection function at a position overlooking the car from her home, and Renwick and his brothers also sent a constant recording type drive recorder. After setting up the footage to stream online and continuing to monitor it, it turned out that the perpetrator of the car tampering was not a teenager, but a large, masked and suspicious adult man. Renwick believes the man not only graffitied and threw eggs on the car, but also urinated on it.
In the video below, you can see the criminal's appearance taken by the drive recorder that was actually set in my sister's car, and you can see that the way he walks is somewhat unique.
Although the stalker was clearly escalating, Mr. Renwick and others began to talk about plans to catch the stalker by themselves, as my sister consulted the police but did not lead to a full-scale investigation. Just in April 2022, Mr. Renwick was planning to return to Scotland from Germany with his wife, so the three brothers decided to stake out when Mr. Renwick returned home. In addition, Mr. Renwick and others also investigated the requirements for arresting private individuals when planning the plan, and confirmed that it is permitted to contact the police after catching the stalker red-handed and detain him until the police arrive. He said he did.
On a Friday night in April 2022, Mr. Renwick and others got into their car parked near his sister's car and staked out while communicating with his sister on a walkie-talkie. My eldest brother seemed to be careful enough to record the number of the car entering and exiting the parking lot, but unfortunately the first day ended in vain.
However, Renwick and others, who knew that car mischief was often done on weekends, did not hesitate to stake out the next night. Then, one car that entered the parking lot after 22:00 waited with the headlights on and left the parking lot immediately in about 1 minute. When Mr. Renwick and others checked the license plate thinking something was wrong, it turned out that the car with the same number had come to the parking lot the day before.
The car returned to the parking lot 10 minutes later, parked a short distance away, and the driver got out. Renwick said he was convinced that the driver was a stalker because the driver was large and walked exactly like the culprit recorded on the drive recorder.
The stalker passed in front of the car that Mr. Renwick and others were staked out, and once out of sight. Mr. Renwick and his colleagues were watching the video of the streamed drive recorder to grab evidence of the current crime, but the stalker never appeared near his sister's car. Instead, the stalker returned to his car on a route that did not pass in front of Mr. Renwick and others, got in the car, passed in front of Mr. Renwick and others at a tremendous speed, and left the parking lot. 'The stalker was obviously aware we were sitting there,' Renwick said.
Unfortunately, Mr. Renwick and others missed the stalker, but this time they quietly contacted the police. The police, who had already been consulted by my sister, came immediately, but when I told them the number of the car the stalker was driving, it was registered in
The police took the video back and promised to investigate further, but Renwick and others decided to proceed with their own investigation. When I asked my sister, ``Do you have any idea about a suspicious person who is interested in you?'', she said that there was a suspicious man who repeatedly sent messages on Instagram. My sister has an Instagram account that posts photos of mountain walking, and a man repeatedly sent messages even though my sister did not reply, so my sister blocked the man without interacting. When investigating the man's Instagram account, it was also found that he followed not only his sister's account but also his sister's friend's account, so he may have confirmed his sister's appearance when sharing the story on Instagram.
The man also approached his sister on the dating app Bumble, sending numerous ' super swipes ' to show he was interested in her. Normally, Bumble can't send a super swipe again if the super swipe is not accepted, but it seems that the man deleted and recreated the account many times and repeatedly sent the super swipe. In addition, in the man's profile column, the 'ideal woman' item is lined up with features that suggest a younger sister, and when the younger sister touches on sports and hobbies on Instagram, that content is also reflected in the Bumble profile. thing.
Since Bumble is a location-based dating app, on the day that Mr. Renwick and others encountered the stalker on a stakeout, the man's account came to the area where his sister lived, and after the stalker fled, the man's account It was also determined that the account had left the region. Furthermore, when Renwick and others searched for the man's personal information from the Instagram name, it was found that he was registered with LinkedIn, a business SNS, and worked for a company in Yorkshire. This also matches that the number of the car that the stalker was riding was registered in Yorkshire.
Based on these evidence, Mr. Renwick and others sent a message to the man on Instagram. When I shook him by telling him that I had the evidence, the man said, 'There is no excuse, I am truly sorry. I have been diagnosed with depression and cannot act calmly or have an acceptable attitude. But this is not an excuse, I promise to delete all social media, including dating apps, and never set foot there again.' In addition, the man posted a landscape photo of Scotland on his Instagram account and had thousands of followers, but many of the shooting locations were where his sister visited the day before and posted the photo on Instagram. it is.
In the end, my sister gave all the evidence to the police, and about a week later the man was arrested. The pre-trial arrangement procedure was held in November 2022, and a prison sentence was given in January 2023, and Mr. Renwick was motivated to explain the series of events. Although Scottish legal records give a clue to the man's identity, Renwick said, ``I believe in the justice system, and I don't think there will be a witch hunt after this man. 'If I had half a brain, I would never do this again.'
As a lesson learned from the incident, Renwick said, 'Ladies, you don't have to change your behavior for some nasty guys, but if you're open about your location online, especially on social media, Be careful when revealing.' 'Men, don't be a creepy stalker. If a girl doesn't chat on Instagram, leave her alone. Sent more messages.' By the way, she won't turn around, and the same is true for dating apps, so if she doesn't match you, don't take it personally and move on.' doing.
In addition, Mr. Renwick also complains about Bumble's mechanism that allows you to delete your account and recreate it as many times as you like. Even if a Super Swipe is rejected once, the system that allows you to send Super Swipe to the same person again by recreating an account is a problem. argued that we should introduce
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