I just got off the phone with my cousin who still lives in my hometown and she said that the local news just reported that my stalker has broken out of prison, and I’m really scared and nervous. Here’s some backstory - back in 2020, when the pandemic hit for the first time and lockdowns were put in place, I started an Instagram account to just document my life in lockdown, and posted pretty mundane content from pictures and videos of me cooking, cleaning, just chatting about random things, etc. I was mostly followed only by my friends and acquaintances, and very few people I didn’t know.
Towards the end of that year, when restrictions were starting to ease and we could go out, a friend organised a birthday party and it was really fun. Someone at the party mentioned my Instagram and how she enjoyed my content, and I said thanks, and then someone else said that I was a good actress, and I was confused but I thought maybe she just thought I was acting in my videos, so I just said, “Oh, no, I’m not an actress, my videos are real”, and she was like, “Oh, really?”, but before she could say anything else, we were interrupted by someone else and the birthday party just went on with more fun and conversations.
After the party, I kind of forgot about the weird comment about my “acting”, and just carried on with life as usual, until about 2 weeks later when I was at a grocery store and this random customer walked up to me and said, “Hey, you’re the girl from TikTok that makes these crying videos! Can I have a selfie with you?” I was genuinely puzzled and I asked her, “What TikTok? I’ve never used TikTok, I think you’re confusing me with someone else.” She looked disappointed and just said, “Oh, but you look exactly like her, are you sure you’re not
Sure enough, the account used the same name as my Instagram handle, and the person in the videos certainly looked like me, but the only problem was - I never made those videos. And I hardly cry, though the person in these videos was crying in pretty much every video. I was so confused, and the girl I was talking to saw the confusion on my face, and it seemed to click for her that something was not right. So, she double checked that I wasn’t the owner of the account, and I showed her my phone, that I did not have a TikTok account, I showed her my Instagram, and coincidentally, proving without a shadow of a doubt that I didn’t own that TikTok account, a brand new video was posted to the account whilst I was talking to this stranger.
The girl I was talking to was also disturbed by what she was seeing, and she offered to report the account for me, and I asked her to report it and to ask her friends and followers to also report it. I thanked her for bringing it to my attention, and as soon as I got home, I searched for the official contact details for TikTok support and emailed them about the account that was impersonating me. It was a tedious process, but eventually, the account got taken down. I was very relieved, but still anxious and nervous knowing that whoever was behind it could potentially just create a new account, and I’d be none the wiser unless someone else randomly brought it up with me.
Another question that was still unanswered was how the person in the video looked exactly like me, like same face, same hair, same everything? Did I have a secret identical twin? I mean, it has happened before with the case of triplets separated at birth as part of some experiment, and after a few days of keeping the idea to myself, I asked my parents if I was adopted and/or if I had a twin. They vehemently denied both, and wanted to know why I asked such a bizarre question, and eventually, I told them everything, and they were as shocked as I was but comforted me saying that I was their only daughter and I wasn’t adopted and that I didn’t have a twin. I was convinced, and also the secret twin theory couldn’t account for this TikTok account using the same name as my Instagram handle.
A few weeks passed and I was starting to get over this experience, thinking it was behind me. One day, I was taking a walk in a local park, and this guy came up to me and introduced himself and asked if I was
I literally ran home afterwards, quite shocked by this experience. Little did I know that it was only the beginning of my nightmares. I’d stupidly left my Instagram account to public, and I got a message request from a strange account, apologising for the creepy behaviour, but still saying how pretty I looked with tears in my eyes and how he’d love to see me cry in real life. I know I should have blocked him instantly, but instead I replied, threatening to call the cops, and what he said made me tremble. He said, “I know where you live, and if you don’t bring back your TikTok or post your crying videos here on Insta, I’m going to find you and give you real reasons to cry.” I instantly blocked him, told my parents what had happened, and they went to the police.
Thankfully, the police were able to track him quite easily, he lived not too far away, and I was able to give them a reasonably good description of him, and there had been witnesses to our encounter in the park, so the guy was caught and charged with harassment and cyberbullying, and it was later discovered that I wasn’t the first girl he’d tried these things with, and a couple of his exes came forward to testify of how he abused them in order to make them cry and would film them. So, by the time he was sentenced, he’d built up quite the rap sheet with a bunch of charges relating to harassment, cyberbullying, stalking, domestic abuse (side note, if you’re going through something like this, please reach out to someone and get help), amongst other things, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
The trial happened last year and the sentencing back in June of last year, and it was quite the relief for both me and my family. As to the mystery behind the TikTok account, that still hasn’t been solved, though the police theorised that the videos must have been deep faked by using my face from my Instagram account. The person responsible for the videos still hasn’t been found. Nevertheless, the stalker being locked up was such a relief. Until today when I got a call from my cousin, who had been watching the local news when they reported that a prisoner had escaped, and it was none other than the creep who stalked me. I moved interstate for college at the start of this year, so I’m not living with my parents right now, but I’m still very scared for my parents as the creep said he knew where I lived, and for other girls in the neighbourhood. Law enforcement is on the lookout for him, but I’m scared stiff, and would appreciate advice on what me and my family should be doing to protect ourselves. If you have any advice at all, please share below. Thanks.