Real Encounters

*My older friend stalked a teenage girl*

To start off, I'm a girl in my twenties, and the guy in question is about 20 years older. Despite the shocking age difference, we were friends. We talked often, and I knew his wife as well. During the years I've known him he never acted in an inappropriate way, which is why I trusted his side of the story.

So about two years ago, my friend Ted moved to another state for work. He worked closely with his boss who according to Ted was a complete asshole. His boss had an 18 years old step-daughter called Nicki who would visit their work place often. During his breaks Ted would talk to her occasionally. He messaged me on Facebook and told me all about her, and the horrible way in which her step-dad treats her. According to Ted, her father was controlling every minute of her life - he checked her browser history, logged onto her accounts and pretended to be her, took her cellphone away, and other creepy things of the sort. He told me that one day she confided in him about being sexually abused by her step-dad when she was 12, and that this was the reason he was so controlling.

Ted decided to make it his mission to save her from her step-dad. He gave her a separate mobile, and tried to contact the police and any other service he could think of. In the meanwhile Nicki stopped talking to him. She blocked his number, threw away the cell phone he gave her, stopped visiting her dad at work, while her dad made it clear to Ted to stay away from her.

Ted told me all of this and asked me to contact her. He said she might be in danger, so even though it was none of my business I added her on Facebook. I had the most awkward conversation with her, trying not to sound creepy myself. I told her Ted asked me to contact her because he's worried about her and her step-dad. She seemed annoyed and said, "What are you talking about? My dad and I are fine, and Ted's just a perverted old man who wants to do sexual things with me." At first I thought she was maybe afraid and lying about it, but decided to apologize and said I'd talk to Ted if he's bothering her.

Then I called Ted and asked him to be honest about this whole thing. He then told me he had been in love with her and wanted to run away together and marry her. He has been going to her house, calling her, messaging her from fake accounts. He kept insisting everything he told me was true and that she was in danger. Even though I was incredibly creeped out by him at this point, I tried to talk to him, and get him to leave her alone. He couldn't be reasoned with and kept telling me that they were in love and even had sex before she started ignoring him. He was completely obsessed with her and even wanted to divorce his wife. I got fed up with it and told his wife everything and cut off all contact with him. The last time I spoke to him was a few weeks after that, and even though he still seemed infatuated with Nicki, he had given up on her.

It might be a bit anticlimactic for such a long post, but it still weirds me out when I think about it, mostly because I have no idea what parts were true. It still bothers me if what he told me about her home life was true. I think she might have tried to reach out to him, but he got obsessed with her and turned into another creeper.