Stalker calls constantly, vilifies masseur in Internet chat rooms and orders items in man’s name

A gay Houston masseur has found that he dreads opening the mailbox because these days, he never knows what he will find.

Recently, he received his first issue of Latina Magazine. He didn’t order it.

This week, he was apprised that his case of infant formula was on the way and, “I’ve got a set of children’s dishes coming.” Again, he didn’t order any of it.

For over a year, the masseur, who asked that his name not be used, has been harassed by a stalker who places his name on mailing lists, orders items in his name and vilifies him in chat rooms on the Web.

The unwanted mail doesn’t come an item at a time. It comes in an avalanche every day.

“I just keep putting ‘return to sender’ on it and sending it back,” he said. “I have not kept any of the products. I don’t want to get stuck with them.”

And, then there are the calls on his business phone, thousands since it all began in the fall of 2003.

On one day alone, the masseur said, “He called me every six minutes for 12 hours. I finally just turned my phone off.”

Now, he said, he believes the stalker has somehow cloned his business cell phone and that he has the ability to listen in on conversations.

“It’s working on me mentally,” the masseur said. “They’ve stolen my freedom. They’ve stolen my life.”

Most upsetting of all, he said, is the fact that although he has kept meticulous records and can provide evidence of phone calls, harassment over the Internet, and unwanted mail sent to his address, he has not been successful in garnering help from law enforcement.

“I’ve contacted the FCC, the FTC, the FBI and the police, and nobody will help me,” he said.

Recently, the man conferred with gay activist Ray Hill, who introduced him to Houston Police Officer Richard Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, who works in the police community relations department, said he is trying to help the man, but the sad reality may be, there isn’t a lot the police can do.

If the stalker had threatened the man with bodily harm in the phone calls, he said, he would have committed a crime.

“Where he may have a better case is with the Postal Inspectors,” Rodriguez said.

The officer is referring the matter of the unwanted mail to the law enforcement division of the postal service.

He’s also checking into whether a law enforcement forensics lab can help identify the stalker through the Internet trail he has left.

In the meantime, the masseur worries what will happen if the stalker becomes bored by his current tactics.

The masseur, who advertises in gay newspapers and on the Internet, said he provides nude massage at his place of business or in hotels for out-of-town visitors but without some of the more erotic additions sometimes requested by callers.

Some clients want more than massage
If callers initially indicate that they expect more than he is willing to provide, he said, he tells them upfront that they should contact an escort.

“My main focus is the massage,” he said.

In some cases, he said, when he meets with clients, he finds that they still expect him to perform acts that he has already indicated would be off limits. He believes his stalker may be one of those former clients.

He always asks age, height and weight over the phone, and the man he has in mind lied about that. When the two met, the masseur said, he discovered that the man was considerably overweight.

“I had to keep peeling him off me,” the masseur said.

After that, he said, he received this message: “Overweight too difficult for you? Ha ha. Phone ringing a lot? Ha ha.”

Friends notified him that his name was popping up in chat rooms, and not in a good way.

In one chat room, the stalker wrote, “Dude, he has AIDS and God knows what else. Pass it on.” In another chat room, the stalker wrote, “He’s knowingly infecting people. He’s wanted by the police.” The stalker also sends out e-mails saying that the masseur is a health hazard.

The masseur is adamant, “I am HIV negative. He’s hurting my business.”

In the end, he said, it’s the constancy of the assault that he finds difficult. And, it’s knowing that the stalker knows where he lives.

“Do you know what an invasion of privacy this is?”

If it’s happening to him, he wonders who else is putting up with a similar situation.

He said somebody needs to be looking into telephone and Internet stalking.

“The government better get off its ass and figure it out because it’s out of control,” he said.

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