Being stalked by someone can be an extremely scary thing to happen. It can feel like a complete loss of your sense of privacy and personal space, and it can have long-reaching impacts on both your own life and those of your family and friends.
A stalker might start out quite innocently, someone who admits to admiring you, but then they can become obsessive. Or it could be an ex-partner who won’t leave you alone. You might not even know the identity of your stalker. Whatever the cause of your being stalked, it’s something you’re going to want to get resolved quickly.
Are you being stalked?
Firstly though, you’re going to need to work out whether you definitely are being stalked. It might be obvious that you are, but you need to be careful about levying such an accusation at someone.
To be clear, stalking is when someone is watching you – either literally, or through keeping tabs on your whereabouts. They need to be doing it repeatedly and it needs to be unwanted, but that’s as simple as saying you didn’t want them to be watching you, permission is never implied.
Stalking comes under the umbrella term of harassment, which is defined legally as someone acting in a way to cause you intimidation or embarrassment. But it is its own niche. Someone who is regularly calling or texting you isn’t stalking you, but they are harassing you if it’s communication you have tried to end.
Next, even if you believe you are being stalked – are you certain? The first question a sceptical person will ask is whether you’re just being paranoid, and that’s something you should be prepared for.
Trust yourself – if you feel like someone is stalking you, there’s a good chance they are. Better to be overly careful than dismiss it. But if you do have other factors impacting your mental health, do consider that maybe you are picking up on trends that aren’t really there. Always veer on the more cautious side though, until you know for definite one way or the other.
Who is stalking you?
Once you’ve established that you are being stalked, it’s time to identify who the stalker is. You might know who they are, particularly if it’s someone who isn’t trying to hide that they’re stalking you and that they’re clearly watching you.
However, they might be someone you’ve never met before. Social media can be a wonderful tool but it also opens up all manner of our personal details to complete strangers. If you don’t have your profiles set to private, someone could easily find you, develop an obsession and then work out your regular daily routines in order to start following you. The check-in tool on Facebook is a stalker’s dream.
And then there’s the situation where maybe the stalker is someone you know, but you don’t know that yet. Sometimes someone may be stalking you from afar, going to lengths to obscure their identity because they don’t want to be caught.
In either of these scenarios you’re going to want to work out who it is that’s stalking you, so that you can tell them to stop and report them to the authorities. On your own, this might not be easy, but that’s where a private investigator can help.
We’ve got a wealth of experience in identifying people, whether we’re searching for someone missing or looking to find someone that we need to serve legal documents to. Which means we’re absolutely equipped to use our tools and skills to work out who somebody is that’s stalking you.
It’s not just stalkers that can make the most of social media – we’re experts in using popular networks and other online resources to safely and legally work out who somebody is that’s tracking you online. Or if it’s in-person stalking, we can use our surveillance equipment to gather the images needed to later identify a stalker.
With our help, you’ll have no trouble understanding who it is that’s stalking you. This will help you understand their motive, which will be important when it comes to reporting them.
Gathering evidence of stalking
You’ve established that you’re being stalked and you know their identify – now what? It’s time to gather evidence. Because that point we made earlier about people questioning whether you’re paranoid? You want to avoid the frustration and delays this can cause.
Not only that, but as soon as your stalker gets the hint that you’re working to stop their stalking, they’re either going to double-down on their efforts and become even more intimidating, or they could go quiet for a while. If they do, finding evidence will be harder, and you’ll be back at square one when they do (inevitably) start up again.
This is another area where a private investigator can really help you. We’re able to use our surveillance and tracking skills and technology to capture photos and videos that demonstrate the extent of your stalker’s behaviour. We can use our advanced online software to record all conversations, and our innovative tech to monitor you and your property for any bugs or recording devices that the stalker may themselves be using.
And most crucially of all – we can record all of this evidence in a way that is legally admissible in trials, so that you know it’s safe to use when trying to convict your stalker and ensure they can never do anything like this again.
Once you’ve identified your stalker, and gathered evidence of the stalking, we’d be able to work with the authorities and your legal representatives to ensure that everything was submitted correctly. We’d also be able to offer you further support on how to minimise the risks of being stalked in future.
If you think you might be being stalked, or you know you are and you’re at the stage of needing evidence to be recorded in order to convict them and protect yourself, give us a call on 01772 334700 and see how we can help keep you and your loved ones safe.