Stalker en-us Sat, 27 Dec 2014 14:04:43 -0500 Sat, 27 Dec 2014 14:04:43 -0500 The latest news on Stalker from Business Insider Business Insider Beststelling Author Describes Being Stalked In A Candid, Disturbing AMA Tue, 14 Oct 2014 17:16:00 -0400 Natasha Bertrand <p><img src=" shot 2014-10-14 at 3.04.32 pm.png" border="0" alt="Screen Shot 2014 10 14 at 3.04.32 PM"></p><p></p> <p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">A bestselling author named Melissa Anelli&nbsp;<a href="">spoke out in a Reddit AMA this week</a> about how she realized online abuse had turned into terrifying cyberstalking.&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff;">"[It started with] the first death threat. Actually, I didn't think it was stalking at that point. I thought it was a one-off death threat, and I took it seriously, and warned staff, but I didn't think it would continue," writes Anelli, author of "<a href="">Harry, A History</a>," which chronicles the "Harry Potter" phenomenon.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff;">"When almost every day thereafter contained some message, threat, or vile insinuation, stalker started to apply. And as it worked itself offline, harassment and abuse applied," she added. "Not that you can only be harassed and abused offline, but that was the first time I started assigning those words to myself."</span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff;">Anelli says her alleged stalker, a New Zealand woman named Jessica Parker</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, began harassing her through her online forum. Parker allegedly sent Anelli a death threat when she was asked to stop. At this point, Anelli reached out to the FBI for help.</span></p> <p>P<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">arker was first arrested for criminal harassment in New Zealand in 2011. She was instructed not to contact Anelli and to stay off the internet, but allegedly&nbsp;</span><a href="">began the harassment again the day these restrictions were lifted</a>, NPR has reported.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Anelli <a href="">told NPR</a> that she can&nbsp;<span>get up to 20 messages in a day from Parker, ranging from "extremely graphic rape threats to really graphic death threats."&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">When asked on Reddit if she has taken any extra precautions to protect herself, such as purchasing a gun, Anelli replied that she has never considered owning a weapon and is taking all of the "basic precautions" necessary to secure her personal safety.&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Those precautions include locking down her online presence, she told NPR. This was hard for somebody with such a big online presence. "<span>This has completely changed that in the sense that I'm a much more suspicious person," she told NPR.</span></span></p><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> Sophia Bush Exposes Her 'Perverse Monster' Twitter Stalker In Passionate Post Tue, 30 Sep 2014 14:54:00 -0400 Aly Weisman <p><img src="" border="0" alt="sophia bush"></p><p>Actress Sophia Bush is fighting back against a Twitter user who has been harassing the actress and her fans on social media "for the past few months."</p> <p>On Tuesday, Bush <a href="" target="_blank">posted a screenshot</a>&nbsp;to Twitter and Instagram of the hateful and violent tweets by someone who has been impersonating the "Chicago P.D." actress under the username&nbsp;@SophhiaBush <span>—</span>&nbsp;which has just one more "h" than Bush's <a href="" target="_blank">actual, verified account</a>.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="Sophia Bush Instagram Stalker" style="color: #000000;"></p> <p><span>The imposter has been tweeting at Bush's fans, making them think it is the actress tweeting at them. After Bush blocked the user, they just created a"close to 20" new accounts with a similar username.</span></p> <p><strong>Bush retaliated by outing the user, <a href="" target="_blank">posting the below note</a> fighting back against the bully below:</strong></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">For the past few months I have been harassed to the point of sheer horror by an online stalker. This person has taken to harassing and bullying many of my followers as well. And tonight I finally said f*ck this sh*t. This i<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">s what I posted to twitter. The photograph is a tiny sampling of over 500 screenshots I’ve taken in the last three months. And I’m sharing it here to make something very clear. This kind of behavior does. Not. Fly. You do not have permission to hide. Not anymore: This has gotten beyond out of hand. Obsessive. Violent. And legally punishable.</span></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">To any of you who’ve been targeted by @SophhiaBush, I’m so sorry. I’m sure he/she will be blocked again soon, only to create another account. We’re close to 20 now. And law enforcement says “we’re on it,” and “don’t acknowledge this person,” but when this person, this vitriolic perverse monster is targeting all of you? Threatening rape, gang rape, &amp; throat slitting to name a few? Impersonating me and breaking some of your hearts? Telling people they should kill themselves, and detailing how? Nope. No silence. As the evidence of staking and harassment mounts, so does my anger. Because this is grotesque.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">And on the other side, my sadness mounts as well. What happened to you, you poor lost soul, that this is how you find pleasure? That you need to attempt to destroy little bits of other people to build yourself up, bit by bit? Who in your life hurt you? Who made you need to act out like this? Because my god I feel so sorry for you.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">B<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">ut my sorrow in the face of your pain is no match for my anger at the pain you are causing others. You do not have the right to spread poison because you have felt poisoned. It’s a small minded and ugly path to take. Choosing to inflict pain doesn’t make you strong or powerful. It only proves your weakness and self-loathing. All the time you’re taking to verbally harass us, threaten physical assault, and terrorize strangers? Please start spending it in therapy and learn to love yourself. You deserve it. And because none of us deserve one more moment of your bullying bullsh*t. #gethelp #bullyingisugly #violenceisntfunny #thereisabetterway</span></p> <p><strong>The fan reaction has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive on <a href="" target="_blank">the Instagram post</a>, which currently has nearly 47,000 "likes":</strong></p> <p><span></span><img src="" border="0" alt="sophia bush instagram"><img src="" border="0" alt="sophia bush instagram"></p> <p><strong>Bush also tweeted an image of the tweets she collected from the imposter/stalker:</strong></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"> <p>This has gotten beyond out of hand. Obsessive. Violent. And legally punishable. To any o... <a href=""></a> <a href=""></a></p> — Sophia Bush (@SophiaBush) <a href="">September 30, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async="" src="//" charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script> <p><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">Not surprisingly, she got hundreds of positive replies:</strong></p> <p><img src=" shot 2014-09-30 at 2.32.13 pm.png" border="0" alt="sophia bush twitter"></p> <p><strong>After tons of Bush's fans reported the Twitter user, it appears their account has been shut down. This is what you see now if you click on @SophhiaBush:</strong></p> <p><img src=" shot 2014-09-30 at 2.26.48 pm.png" border="0" alt="sophia bush twitter"></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="" >'Modern Family' Editor Live-Tweets Plane Passenger's Incredible Drunken Meltdown</a></strong></p> <p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> Dartmouth Won't Allow Student To Carry Gun For Protection, Despite A Man Allegedly Stalking Her For Four Years Wed, 06 Aug 2014 19:21:00 -0400 David M Brooks <p><img style="float:right;" src="" border="0" alt="Dartmouth Baker library "></p><p>A 20-year-old Dartmouth student is challenging the school's policy against concealed handgun carry, which she argues would better protect her from a man who has allegedly stalked her for four years.</p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Taylor Woolrich claims that she has been the victim of stalking since the age of 16, when 67-year-old Robert Bennett began harassing her at the San Diego café where she worked, "</span><a href="">even sitting outside the store</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> for an entire day and then following her home, demanding that she talk to him and saying he was '"trying to protect her,'" according to Fox News.</span></p> <p>Bennett's alleged behavior quickly escalated and Woolrich was forced to take action.&nbsp;</p> <p>"Eventually it all came to a climax when he attacked, well attempted to attack my then boyfriend in high school when I was 17-years-old and told him he should never speak to me again and threw hot coffee in his face," Woolrich <a href="">said recently</a><span>&nbsp;at Students for Concealed Carry's annual conference.&nbsp;</span></p> <p>Woolrich was able to obtain an emergency restraining order. However, even the restraining order and matriculating to a school on the opposite side of the country wasn't enough to deter her alleged stalker. Woolrich says that Bennett contacted her multiple times throughout the school year and even hired a private investigator to track down information on the young student.&nbsp;</p> <p>The story came to a frightening head when Woolrich came home at the end of the summer.</p> <p><span>"After 18 months of not seeing this man," Woolrich explained, "I got back to my parents' house at 1:30 a.m. flying in from Dartmouth and at 8:30 a.m. the next morning he was knocking on my front door."</span></p> <p><span>Bennett was arrested after Woolrich and her family contacted the police. A search of Bennett's car uncovered duct tape, a slip noose, knives, and other items.&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span>Bennett is currently being held in San Diego and is accused of violating his restraining order, felony stalking and other crimes. While this may be comforting news, Woolrich understandably worries about her safety, and she thinks carrying a concealed handgun would help.</span></p> <p><span>As a result, she contacted Dartmouth hoping to get permission to conceal carry. However, school officials have given a resounding no.</span></p> <p><span><span>“It’s strictly prohibited and we are not in the habit of making exceptions,” spokesman Justin Anderson told&nbsp;</span>Fox News<span>. “But we certainly do everything we possibly can to make all our students feel safe.”</span></span></p> <p>Besides concerns expressed by Woolrich, Dartmouth has seen a spate in alleged assaults on campus recently.&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The Dartmouth, the college's newspaper, reported that two men were arrested on July 2nd for </span><a href="">allegedly attacking a student</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and then robbing him.</span></p> <p>Another alleged assault occurred during the early morning hours of July 27th when a 23-year-old-man <a href="">reportedly attacked a 53-year-old resident</a> across from the college campus and Theta Delta Chi fraternity.&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“Every morning I check the inmate lookup online to see if he has made bail,” she told Fox News. “I feel safe for now, but the day he gets out is the day I will have to leave Dartmouth.”</span></p> <p><iframe width="854" height="510" frameborder="0" src="//"></iframe></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="" >Gun Control Advocate James Brady Has Died</a></strong></p> <p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> People Think It's Totally Acceptable To Stalk A Crush On Facebook Mon, 16 Jun 2014 10:30:09 -0400 Megan Rose Dickey <p>The "Seven Digital Deadly Sins," a <a href="" target="_blank">new interactive project</a> from The Guardian and the National Film Board of Canada, asks you to absolve or condemn various digital "sins."</p> <p>The project explores whether or not it's acceptable to download movies for free, look at porn sites, compulsively add friends on Facebook, stalk a crush on Facebook, and much more.</p> <h3>Here are the seven digital deadly sins: Envy, pride, wrath, lust, gluttony, sloth, and greed.<img src="" border="0" alt="Seven Digital Deadly Sins" style="font-size: 1.17em; color: #000000;" />Let's take a look at Lust. If you hover over cards on the left, you'll see "What do you think?" questions about having secret email accounts, watching porn, and stalking crushes on Facebook.<img src=" 2014-06-16 09.40.13.png" border="0" alt="seven digital deadly sins" style="font-size: 1.17em;" />If you click on the "Stalking on Facebook" card, you'll be asked to absolve or condemn the practice.<img src=" 2014-06-16 09.40.44.png" border="0" alt="seven digital deadly sins" style="line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 1.17em;" />Next, you'll have to say if you've ever stalked a crush through their Facebook page.<img src=" 2014-06-16 09.40.58.png" border="0" alt="seven digital deadly sins" style="line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 1.17em;" />Phew! At least the majority of people absolve this sin.<img src=" 2014-06-16 09.41.11.png" border="0" alt="seven digital deadly sins" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;" /></h3><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="" >18 Emoji You're Probably Using Wrong</a></strong></p> <p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> Woman Accused Of Stalking A Gospel Singer Uploaded These Weird Videos To YouTube And Then Disappeared Mon, 06 Jan 2014 18:35:49 -0500 Pamela Engel <p>In videos 30-year-old doctor Teleka Patrick uploaded to YouTube the month before she disappeared, she speaks to a love interest who is thought to be a popular gospel singer she had been accused of stalking, the&nbsp;Kalamazoo Gazette <a href="">reports</a>.</p> <p>Pastor and Grammy-nominated singer Marvin Sapp got a restraining order against Patrick after she allegedly stalked him for "at least a year." Sapp reportedly presented 400 pages of correspondence from Patrick that he says he never responded to.</p> <p>Ominously, the second video Patrick uploaded is titled "Surprise! Final video."&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">She disappeared Dec. 5.</span></p> <p>Patrick was last seen trying to get a room at a Radisson hotel, according to the Gazette. After she was unable to get a room, she took the hotel shuttle back to her car. Her purse and cellphone were found at the hospital where she worked.</p> <p>In two YouTube videos Patrick posted in November, she talks about her day, sings songs, and shows off her cooking, saying: "If you were here, this is what would be your plate."</p> <p>The videos are embedded below:</p> <p><iframe width="800" height="600" frameborder="0" src="//"></iframe> <iframe width="800" height="600" frameborder="0" src="//"></iframe></p> <p>Patrick's family <a href="">suspects foul play</a>. In a statement released to the Gazette, her family says that they aren't sure who Patrick is talking to in the videos and say they don't think she was in a romantic relationship at the time of her disappearance. They do reference a relationship that ended early last year, though.</p> <p>Ismael Calderon, who was married to Patrick for six years before they divorced in 2012, <a href="">told the Gazette</a> that Patrick's struggles with mental illness led to their separation.</p> <p>She reportedly told Calderon that the movie "A Beautiful Mind," which depicts a mentally ill mathematician, is similar to her own life story. Patrick also reportedly said that she heard voices. Calderon said that the "delusions" and "paranoia" eventually spiraled out of control.</p> <p><a href="">Court documents</a> detail the stalking allegations against Patrick. She lived in California while she was married to Calderon, but reportedly moved to Michigan after she became obsessed with Sapp, who lives in the state with his family.</p> <p>Sapp wrote in the court documents:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">"I am a national recording artist on the RCA label who [Patrick] has claimed as her husband. She has moved from [California] to [Michigan], joined my church, contacts my children, and has been to my home. I have at least 400 pages of correspondence from her which I have never responded to."</p><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> Actress Found Guilty Of Stalking Alec Baldwin, Sentenced To Jail Thu, 14 Nov 2013 14:14:00 -0500 JENNIFER PELTZ <p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><img style="float:right;" src="" border="0" alt="Alec Baldwin" width="480" />NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; A Canadian actress was sentenced Thursday to six months in jail by a judge who found her guilty of stalking Alec Baldwin in New York.</span></p> <p>Genevieve Sabourin, 41, who had already been facing 30 days in jail for repeatedly disrupting court proceedings during her trial, was well-behaved but defiant after the verdict was announced.</p> <p>"I haven't done anything wrong. I'm innocent," she told Judge Robert Mandelbaum. "You're doing a mistake right now."</p> <p>The judge found Sabourin guilty of stalking, attempted aggravated harassment, harassment and attempted contempt of court, saying she had no right to pursue contact she knew to be unwanted.</p> <p>At the trial, Baldwin testified that the actress had turned his life into a horror film after they met once for dinner. He said she besieged him with unwanted phone calls and emails and started showing up at his homes and at public events.</p> <p>"Your relentless and escalating campaign of threats and in-person appearances in private spaces served at a minimum to harass, annoy and alarm Mr. Baldwin, and intentionally so, and terrorized his wife," Mandelbaum said.</p> <p>Sabourin testified that she had a legitimate, though brief romance with Baldwin, and just wanted him to explain why he didn't want to see her anymore.</p> <p>In his summation to the judge, defense lawyer Todd Spodek said Baldwin "doesn't have carte blanche to use the criminal justice system to sort out his relationships."</p> <p>"He set her up at a luxury hotel. He took her on a once-in-a- lifetime, fairy-tale date. ... Was Ms. Sabourin wrong to think that this was more than a one-night stand?"</p> <p>The judge ordered Sabourin to serve the six months after the 30 days she previously received for contempt of court. There was no jury in the case, at Sabourin's request.</p> <p>Baldwin and Sabourin agree on this much: They met during a 2000 movie shoot in Montreal and had dinner a decade later in New York. The dinner came after mutual friend Martin Bregman, producer of movies including "Scarface," had Baldwin call her as she sought career help.</p> <p>She says the dinner ended in a sexual encounter, which the actor denies.</p> <p>He said Sabourin then flooded him with calls and emails. After a March 2012 message said she could infiltrate his apartment building and his now-wife's yoga class, "I knew that she was dangerous," the "30 Rock" star testified.</p> <p>Then Sabourin showed up at a film screening he was hosting and at his Hamptons and Manhattan homes. She was arrested outside his apartment building in April 2012.</p> <p>Sabourin, however, said the actor invited her to New York in 2010, took her on a dream date that ended in an amorous night filled with promises for the future, and then dropped her.</p> <p>She said they maintained a fraught email and phone relationship over the next two years. While he did send some friendly emails, he says he also implored her to leave him alone.</p> <p>She says the overall message from him was mixed, and she felt entitled to ask what had gone wrong.</p> <p>"It's not because he's rich and famous that he can take advantage of women and throw them in the garbage," she said.</p> <div class="nc_footer"> <p>Copyright (2013) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.</p> </div> <p><img class="nc_pixel" src="" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="" >Alec Baldwin 'Wept On The Witness Stand' While Testifying Against Alleged Stalker</a></strong></p> <p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> Economist Accused Of Stalking Citigroup Exec Faces Even Crazier New Allegations Tue, 20 Aug 2013 15:26:50 -0400 Joseph Ax <p><img style="float:right;" src="" border="0" alt="Heleen Mees" width="480" /></p><p>(Reuters) - A Dutch economist faces additional criminal charges in New York for allegedly stalking Citigroup Inc's (<span id="symbol_C.N_0">C.N</span>) global chief economist, Willem Buiter.</p> <p>Heleen Mees, 44, was arraigned in New York City Criminal Court on Monday on an amended criminal complaint that contained further details of the alleged harassment.</p> <p>She had previously been charged in connection with the case in July, but prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney's office added more charges on Monday.</p> <p>According to the amended complaint, Buiter told police Mees used a fake name to try to meet him at a hotel in Amsterdam in January, after trying to catch up with him at a Beijing hotel in 2010.</p> <p>All together, the revised complaint said, Mees sent Buiter more than 3,000 emails between November 7, 2009, and July 1, 2013.</p> <p>The emails ranged from the obscene to the threatening, Buiter told police.</p> <p>"I hope you die," read one email sent last September, according to the complaint. Another email allegedly contained pictures of dead birds.</p> <p>In a two-week stretch in May, Mees sent Buiter 55 sexually explicit emails, and between late May and late June Mees emailed him 68 times asking to meet for a drink, the complaint said.</p> <p>Mees now faces one count of menacing, two counts of stalking, four counts of aggravated harassment and one count of harassment, all misdemeanors. The most serious charges carry up to one year in prison.</p> <p>Mees' attorney, Ira London, was not immediately available to comment. Her previous court-appointed lawyer said at an earlier court appearance that Mees and Buiter had a "longstanding relationship," according to news reports.</p> <p>Mees' 2012 doctoral thesis, "Changing Fortunes: How China's Boom Caused the Financial Crisis," included the dedication, "For Willem." In the acknowledgements, Mees thanked Buiter for meeting with her in 2008 to discuss the paper.</p> <p>Buiter, 63, is married to Anne Sibert, an economics professor at the University of London, and has two children. He lives in New York.</p> <p>Mees is due back in court on October 24.</p> <p>(Editing by Dan Grebler)</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="" >Bill Ackman Is Getting No Credit For The One Thing That's Working At JCPenney, And He Should</a></strong></p> <p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> Small Businesses Need To Be Bold To Land Big Clients Thu, 11 Jul 2013 16:53:19 -0400 Jessica Stillman <p>You&rsquo;re just a small business, but you have big dreams and an awesome product. If only you could get it into the hands of the established player that could bring it market and make you a mint. But you can&rsquo;t just give that dream partner&rsquo;s busy CEO a call, can you?</p> <p>Probably not, but you can send them a LinkedIn invite.</p> <p>What difference will that make? In the case of Metric Labs, it made all the difference in the world.</p> <p>The tiny product research company had a prototype for SkyView, a gizmo that converts an airline seat into a hands-free viewing station for your smartphone or tablet, and they knew top hardware company Griffin Technologies was their dream target to license it. But, as company co-founder Bryan McClain explained to, all routes to reaching Griffin&rsquo;s top decision makers had failed.</p> <p>Attempts to get connections lower down the chain of command to pass the idea up had gone nowhere and boldly picking up the phone and attempting to blag their way to a meeting were likewise fruitless. Then one Thursday, a frustrated McClain had one last idea.&nbsp;</p> <p>"I am going to ask to be a friend of the founder and CEO, Paul Griffin, via LinkedIn and I&rsquo;m going to tell him: &lsquo;I&rsquo;m the president of this company and I&rsquo;m not sure why I can&rsquo;t get ahold of you but I have something amazing that you need to see.&rsquo; So I write this little summary and I shoot it off," McClain narrates. "I expect not much in return - kind of a shot in the dark."</p> <p>But his message did get through, leading to an email from Mark Rowan, Griffin&rsquo;s president, then a phone pitch then an in-office meeting and finally the coveted licensing deal. How did McClain and the other three members of his product team reel in this very large fish?&nbsp;</p> <h3>Be a Stalker</h3> <p>In your personal life stalking is a sign of mental illness, but when you&rsquo;re trying to get the attention of very busy people, it&rsquo;s just good sense. "We studied [Griffin] like you wouldn&rsquo;t believe," says McClain. "We looked at every single product they created. How they built it. Who works at their company. What is their philosophy. We looked at every angle you can imagine."</p> <p>This obsessive targeting paid off when they got the first bite from Rowan. Besides knowing in advance that he was a frequent traveler who would likely be a receptive candidate for their pitch, the team was also prepared to show how their product could be integrated into Griffin&rsquo;s product line.</p> <p>"We actually purchased a couple of their products, hacked up their parts and installed their parts into our prototype to show them, hey look, if you take your existing parts and you put them into ours then you&rsquo;re going to have this product that&rsquo;s ready to go," says McClain.</p> <h3>Nail the Narrative</h3> <p>Obsessive preparation isn&rsquo;t just about laying out a detailed and compelling business case (though that&rsquo;s certainly essential). For Metric Labs it was also about getting the story and experience right. From the beginning the team was determine to make their pitch an immersive and compelling story.&nbsp;</p> <p>"We believe in a narrative as a way of getting people onboard and conveying high-level concepts," explains Demetrius Madrigal, Metric&rsquo;s VP of R&amp;D and McClain&rsquo;s co-founder, so the presentation they developed was designed to convey exactly what it&rsquo;s like to be a user of the product, up to and including storyboards visually illustrating major use cases.</p> <p>"You can&rsquo;t just lay everything out in a presentation. You need to tell a story about what the user is going to do from the second they wake up until they go to bed," says McClain, who reels off a little tale of a weary business traveler with the product on his nightstand and limited space in his carry-on.</p> <h3>Get Physical</h3> <p>The Metric team didn&rsquo;t just want the Griffin execs to understand what hypothetical users of the product would experience, they also wanted Rowan to feel what it was like to use the product for himself. That meant getting a prototype into the hands of Rowan and his team. "They had to be able to hold it, touch, it break - do whatever they want with the prototype," says McClain.</p> <p>But the Metric guys didn&rsquo;t stop there. They also went on an epic six-month quest to get their hands on an actual pair of airline seats (no small feat in the post-9/11 world and&nbsp;<a href="">an adventure that spawned a BusinessWeek article onto itself</a>.) &ldquo;We refused to do a presentation in front of anyone unless they were able to sit in a pair of airline seats and actually have the full experience,&rdquo; McClain insists.</p> <p>Some companies might be tempted to avoid the hassle, but McClain &ldquo;felt that Mark and Scott [of Griffin R&amp;D] took many hours out of their busy schedules to come and see the product. I feel you have to go that extra mile and give them what you would consider to be your best pitch, and for us that meant we had to have airline seats here in the office.&rdquo;</p> <h3>Be Audacious</h3> <p>What&rsquo;s Metric&rsquo;s final message for fellow small business owners trying to get the attention of that elusive big wig? Simply, be bold.</p> <p>&ldquo;Take that shot in the dark. The audacity to try is a big deal. If you really want the meeting, you can get it. You just have to be creative and be persistent and work your angles until you find it,&rdquo; concludes Madrigal.</p> <p>More from Inc.</p> <ul> <li><a href="">Entrepreneur for Life? Apparently, There's No Turning Back</a></li> <li><a href="">Time Flies: Here's How to Slow It Down</a></li> <li><a href="">How to Charm a Complete Stranger</a></li> </ul><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> Taylor Swift Fan Arrested After Swimming To Her Beach House Wed, 15 May 2013 11:59:00 -0400 Aly Weisman <p><img style="float:right;" src="" border="0" alt="Taylor Swift Watch Hill rhode island" width="400" height="300" /></p><p>A crazed Taylor Swift fan didn't just show up at the singer's door&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&mdash;&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">he&nbsp;</span><em style="line-height: 1.5em;">swam</em><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> in the ocean to her beach-side&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Rhode Island home.</span></p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"A&nbsp;22-year-old male from the Chicago area was taken into custody for trespassing after he admitted to swimming up to the beach in front of Swift's home around 2 AM," <a href="" target="_blank">reports TMZ</a>.</span></p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Apparently, the stalker-fan was spotted by local cops who asked him what he was doing in the ice-cold water about a mile from Swift's home and he told them "<span>he had just completed a swim, in which he intended to meet Taylor."</span><br /><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span></span></p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"T</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">he man told cops he swam all the way to Swift's beach, but saw her security team and decided to swim back to where he came from," sources told TMZ.&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The unidentified man is currently in&nbsp;<span>custody as the</span></span></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;Westerly Police Dept. says "</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">There is a zero tolerance policy for trespassers."</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Swift has remained mum about the incident on her <a href="" target="_blank">Twitter account</a>.</span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="" >Thieves steal over $100K from Justin Bieber after Johannesburg concert ></a></strong></p> <p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> There Are 5 Types Of Stalkers Sun, 17 Feb 2013 09:35:00 -0500 Elizabeth Day <p><img style="float:right;" src="" border="0" alt="Fatal Attraction" width="400" height="300" /></p><p>When forensic psychiatrist Frank Farnham first meets a stalker, he doesn't judge. Some of his clients have done awful things. They have intimidated, pursued and terrified their victims.</p> <p>They have sent harassing emails to ex-partners or followed work colleagues home from the office. They have developed harmful fixations on people who have no intention of returning their attentions. All of them will have run the risk of being sent to jail.</p> <p>But Dr. Farnham sees them, first and foremost, as people in need of his help. "They're in a real pickle," he says. "They've got in a terrible situation and can't get out of it. They can't stop."</p> <p>Farnham is the co-founder of the UK's first-ever <a href="" title="">National Stalking Clinic</a>, based at Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield, north London. The clinic, which opened in late 2011, is situated in a series of anonymous modern rooms set behind the imposing, late-Victorian facade of the hospital itself. The uninspiring setting belies the important work that goes on behind the air-locked security doors.</p> <p>According to 2012 Home Office statistics, almost a fifth of women in the UK and 10% of men aged 16-59 say they have been affected by stalking, yet conviction rates remain low: only 20 stalkers a year are jailed for more than 12 months, while others get shortened or community sentences. Farnham and his colleagues are offering an alternative to ineffective prison terms.</p> <p>So far, 80 stalkers have been referred to the clinic by the criminal justice system, 25 have been deemed suitable for treatment and half a&nbsp;dozen have been awarded funding to see them through the eight- to nine-month process to eventual recovery.</p> <p><strong>The treatment takes the form of joint psychiatric and psychological assessment which, says Farnham, "looks at the cycles and patterns of behaviour. What gets you into this situation where you're offending? Let's unpack that. Usually the perpetrator turns up and he's very disparaging about the victim. It's all about how the perpetrator sees things&hellip; So it's, 'OK, how can we stop this stalker going back into prison?' Over time, they'll start looking at the victim and the impact it's having on them."</strong></p> <p>The types of stalkers Farnham sees are 80% male and can be divided into five broad categories: <strong>the rejected stalker</strong>, who has had a relationship with the victim and often seeks revenge,<strong> the intimate stalker</strong> who often becomes deluded that the object of their attentions is a willing romantic partner, <strong>the incompetent stalke</strong>r who usually has underlying learning disabilities or mental-health issues,<strong> the resentful stalker</strong> who does it to frighten and distress and finally,<strong> the predatory stalker</strong> who is preparing a sexual attack.</p> <p>Farnham, who works for the Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust deals mostly with the first category: ex-partners or rejected suitors who are furious about the break-up of their relationship.</p> <p>"They'll come to me and say, 'How dare she break up with me? I want to get back together with her so then I can be the one who leaves.' <strong><a href="">They're narcissistic,</a> grandiose and often underpinning that is low self-esteem</strong>. <strong>A lot of perpetrators are victims themselves</strong>," says Farnham. "But I'm absolutely not underplaying the impact on the victims. It has a terrible effect."</p> <p>At an outside caf&eacute; table in Brighton, Sam Taylor likens the effect to being hunted. "The horrific thing is the level of fear you experience," she says. It is sunny and the clear blue skies provide an oddly disjointed backdrop to the story she recounts. It is the story of how, for five years, she has been stalked by her former partner &ndash; the father of her children.</p> <p>Since the breakdown of their relationship in 2008, Sam says her ex-partner has broken into her house, trailed her, sent abusive texts and letters to her friends and family. On 94 separate occasions he has breached a string of restraining orders. When charged, the sentencing has been lenient &ndash; most often 32 weeks, reduced to 16 for "good behaviour". He is currently living a few miles away from her.</p> <p>Sam, 44 and a university administrator, has become accustomed to existing in a state of constant tension. From her handbag, she takes out a slim, black mobile phone and explains that this operates as a panic button so that she can alert the police if she is in danger. She tends not to travel too far from her central Brighton home. When I ask if she's been on holiday over the past five years, she laughs and shakes her head. "You can't not be hysterical," she explains, the expression in her eyes obscured by dark glasses. "When you're being hunted down, the only reaction is hysteria."</p> <p>Most stalking victims are, like Sam, targeted by a partner or ex-partner. A 2004 report, conducted by two criminal psychologists in the UK, America and Australia, found that nearly half of all offenders turned violent, while 40% of victims were forced to move home or job. Typically, stalking situations last a year or two, although a substantial number carry on for up to five years and some even for decades.</p> <p>With broadened access to the internet, instances of cyber-stalking (which can include email hacking, threatening messages left on social networking sites and identity theft) have also increased dramatically &ndash; the 2010 British Crime Survey estimates that around 2.1 million people experience online stalking each year.</p> <p>A number of celebrities, too, have suffered. <a href="" title="">In 2011, a stalker broke into Madonna's London home</a> because he believed he was in a&nbsp;relationship with the singer and had shared "special messages" with her. And although the victims of stalking are overwhelmingly female, the issue also affects men. In May 2011 the footballer Rio Ferdinand's stalker, <a href="" title="">Susanne Ibru</a>, was jailed for 10 weeks and made the subject of a restraining order after a judge described her behaviour as "predatory and manipulative".</p> <p>Until relatively recently, stalking was not a specific criminal offence. Although there are approximately 120,000 cases each year, only 53,000 incidents are recorded as crimes by police and only one in 50 cases leads to an offender being jailed.</p> <p>But times are changing. At Farnham's clinic, stalking is for the first time being treated as a&nbsp;mental-health issue &ndash; something he believes will have a positive impact on re-offending rates. Stalkers can be referred to the clinic by the courts, police, probation service or NHS. Where appropriate, they will recommend community sentences with compulsory rehabilitation programmes lasting for the best part of a year at a cost of &pound;7,000 to &pound;10,000 &ndash; compared to the &pound;45,000 price tag of keeping someone in jail for a year.</p> <p><strong>"If you want to send them to prison, then fine, but it needs to be a long enough sentence for them to get proper treatment," Farnham says. "If they get a short sentence of, say, six months, they're out after three and they're angry they've been sent to prison, they've been surrounded by a criminal community supportive of their behaviour and when they get out, they'll start stalking again."</strong></p> <p>Last November, the government passed new legislation to ensure that victims' claims are taken seriously. Stalkers will now be prosecuted in the crown court if it can be shown that their victims experience "a fear of violence". And, for the first time, police will be trained in how to handle those who have experienced stalking.</p> <p>For Sam, the move is long overdue. Dealing with the authorities and the courts was, by her own admission, an exhausting, frightening and humiliating experience. When she first voiced her concerns to the police, she remembers being told: "This is a waste of police time. You'll be back with him within three days.'"</p> <p>"You're abused and isolated by a man and then that happens 10-fold by the system," she says.</p> <p>It is a familiar tale. Many of the victims I&nbsp;speak to have had negative experiences with police who, until now, have undergone no formal training to spot the warning signs or to handle the psychological fallout.</p> <p>Claire Waxman, 37, a complementary therapist who was allegedly stalked by Elliot Fogel, a Sky Sports television producer she first met at school, says that when she reported it, she was met with "a very flippant reaction. The policeman laughed it off and said something like, 'Aren't you lucky, having an admirer?'"</p> <p>Fogel allegedly subjected his former school-mate to a nine-year campaign of harassment during which he Googled her name 40,000 times in a year, posed as a prospective parent at her child's nursery, broke into her car and made hundreds of late-night phone calls to her. He was finally sentenced to two years in prison in January.</p> <p>The knock-on effect of Fogel's actions was devastating. Claire lost weight, had bouts of sleeplessness and was forced to move home five times. She also suffered a&nbsp;miscarriage. She remains "hyper-vigilant" about the safety of her two children, aged six and three, and her marriage has been "under an incredible amount of stress and strain".</p> <p>Claire says one of the difficulties in getting the relevant authorities to take stalking seriously is that the impact is often psychological and hard to prove. "As stalking victims, we've not been beaten up, you can't see the physical injury," she explains. "The problem is that the actions in isolation can look pretty meaningless but when you live on a day- to-day basis with something that is invading your family and work life, you feel infected by this person.</p> <p>"There's no place you can turn where they're not watching. You know you're being watched and you have that feeling, that animal instinct, all the time&hellip; it's not flattering in any way whatsoever."</p> <p>And there is, of course, a very real danger that stalking can escalate into something much worse. Last June, the former city auditor <a href="" title="">Al&nbsp;Amin Dhalla</a>, 42, was jailed for a&nbsp;minimum of six years for the "deliberate and chilling" stalking of his former girlfriend, Dr. Alison Hewitt. Dhalla launched a four-month campaign to trace his ex's movements. At the height of the harassment, police airlifted Dr&nbsp;Hewitt's parents from their holiday home on Lundy Island off the Devon coast amid fears for their safety.</p> <p><a href="" title="">Harry Fletcher</a>, the assistant general secretary of the probation union Napo and an adviser on the Parliamentary Inquiry into stalking law reform, says that many victims don't report stalking because of fear:</p> <p>"Fear of the escalation of violence, the belief that maybe they've contributed to that behaviour, the belief that you might lose your job and that the process of reporting the abuse will be humiliating or not taken seriously," he says.</p> <p>Indeed, research compiled by <a href="" title="">Dr. Lorraine Sheridan</a> at Heriot-Watt University three years ago found that, on average, three-quarters of stalking victims aged 19-25 wait for at least 120 incidents before contacting the police.</p> <p>"By that time," says Fletcher. "Some of the people who might have reported it are dead."</p> <p>These are not empty words. A 1999 study conducted by an American academic found that 76% of women murdered by their ex-partners had been stalked in the lead-up to the killing. Stalking has been described, with good reason, as "murder in slow-motion".</p> <p>The facts of Sam Taylor's case make for harrowing reading. In 2008, her long-term partner and the father of her children (who were then 10 months and two years old) revealed that he had once been convicted of tying up and raping a 14-year-old girl. Her partner had served a five-year prison sentence for the crime before they met. Unbeknown to Sam, he had been on the sex offenders' register for almost a decade. When the police discovered he had two children, they told him they would be forced to inform his partner unless he did so himself.</p> <p>Sam was left traumatised by the confession. She moved out, taking the children to her parents, who lived nearby.</p> <p>Then the stalking started.</p> <p>"He phoned me 17 times a day, he'd leave toys for the children in the back of my car," Sam says now. "Everywhere I went, he was there. I&nbsp;just couldn't work out, most of the time, how he knew where I was."</p> <p>He was arrested and spent two weeks in custody, from where he sent around 40 letters to Sam, her parents and her neighbours. When he was released on a restraining order, he broke it &ndash; sending Sam a text with a picture of a noose and the message: "It'll all be over soon my flower."</p> <p>Again, he was arrested, sentenced to 32 weeks and released after 16. He was permitted to live "five minutes' walk" from Sam's house. But by this stage, a terrified Sam and her children were sheltering in a women's refuge.</p> <p>"You think: 'This can't be the case,'" she says now. "But it is the case. It's not until you find yourself in a situation like this that you understand. It's just outrageous."</p> <p>The stalking continued: phone calls out of the blue, sudden appearances while Sam was shopping or out for a pub lunch with her family, threatening texts sent to friends and relatives. He broke into her house and switched off the electricity at the mains. He contacted her parents and sent a sexually explicit email to her friend's teenage daughter.</p> <p>And all the time, Sam says, there was a presumption that she was the one at fault. "His defence will always be: I'm in the same place as him and I've gone there to have him arrested," she explains. "I was constantly being advised to move away from the area. But I live here, I&nbsp;work here, my friends and family are here, my children go to school here. If I moved, I&nbsp;would be completely isolated and the police wouldn't be up to date with all the details of my case."</p> <p>"I've got a massive feeling of grief and devastation that my children are never going to know their father because it's not safe for them."</p> <p>How, I wonder, does she find the strength to talk so openly about her case when it has cost her so much? "Someone once told me the safest thing to do was tell everyone," she says. "I&nbsp;have to speak out. That's what keeps me sane. A lot of people feel shame or they feel embarrassed. I don't feel ashamed. I feel outraged."</p> <p><strong> What causes someone to become a&nbsp;stalker? As Dr. Farnham outlines, in a large number of cases there is a perception of rejection which results in a dangerous fixation on the victim. But broader social forces are also at play: the fact that stalking appears to be on the rise has been blamed on everything from our obsession with celebrity to social isolation and a growing culture of blame.</strong></p> <p>"Normally a stalker has had an intimate relationship with the victim in which there tends to be abuse and control issues," says Laura Richards, a criminal behavioural analyst and co-founder of the charity <a href="" title="">Protection Against Stalking</a>. "When the woman leaves, the stalker cannot take the rejection and then they fixate.</p> <p>"I call it the 'angel/demon' syndrome. When the stalker is arrested, he will often be very plausible in interview. He'll say: 'I love her, she's the centre of my life, I didn't realise I was upsetting her.' Then, when she doesn't behave the way he wants, it will be: 'She's a bitch, she's not going to destroy my life.' That leads to violence and murder."</p> <p>Those victims who do survive are frequently diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. "People think stalking's a celebrity issue so they don't take it seriously because each action can look quite innocuous and unremarkable in isolation," says Richards. "But it's the pattern, the totality of it that makes it creepy and scary for the victim.</p> <p>"Stalking of celebrities or royalty is more of a mental-health issue and often they don't have knowledge or access to these people. Domestic stalking can't just be dismissed. It's psychologically damaging and often there is no violence until there's a homicide. A lot of professionals don't understand what they're seeing until it's too late."</p> <p>Back in the Brighton caf&eacute;, Sam Taylor has finished her coffee. "It's not until you actually find yourself in a situation like this that you suddenly think: 'Oh my God'" she says, taking off her sunglasses to reveal tired eyes. Her stalker is still active. The other week, he sent a <a class="hidden_link" href="">Facebook</a> friend request to her work colleague. "I don't really venture out of the area I&nbsp;live in any more," she says finally, "because I'm really not safe."</p> <p>We get the bill. While I am settling up, I&nbsp;notice Sam's eyes darting across the road to where her car is parked. There is always the chance that the familiar, sinister figure will appear on the far side of the street, always the fear that she is being watched and held in his imaginary crosshairs. The hunter and the hunted. And for Sam, a life lived looking over her shoulder.</p> <!-- Guardian Watermark: internal-code/content/403929573|2013-02-17T10:13:05Z|a73b7da9248275f93cdfb38f3c1cc681175cd0cf --> <p>This article originally appeared on <a href=""></a></p> <p><img class="nc_pixel" src="" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></p><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> This Girl Got A Restraining Order Against Her Own Parents Fri, 28 Dec 2012 15:26:52 -0500 Jonathon M. Seidl <p><img style="float:right;" src="" border="0" alt="aubrey ireland parents restraining order" width="400" /></p><p>Are you a parent? Has your child ever accused you of meddling?</p> <p>While such accusations are many times levied on a whim, you may want to pay attention to this story and weigh in.</p> <p>There&rsquo;s a term out there called &ldquo;helicopter parents&rdquo; &mdash; moms and dads who do more than just take an interest in their kids, but try to dictate their every move, take an interest in every detail, and even live vicariously through their sons and daughters.</p> <p>Twenty-one year old Aubrey Ireland knows the type full well. That&rsquo;s because she just won a restraining order case against her parents who have taken the idea of being involved to a whole new extreme.</p> <p>Aubrey is a&nbsp;<a href="" target="_blank">senior actress</a>&nbsp;at the University of Cincinnati&rsquo;s prestigious&nbsp;College-Conservatory of Music. This fall, she finally had it with her overbearing parents.</p> <p>The school was tired of it, too, having witnessed the odd behavior for years. After Aubrey filed a civil stalking case against them and the judge heard the details, he agreed to order Aubrey&rsquo;s parent to stay away.</p> <p>So what were they doing?</p> <p>The Cincinnati Inquirer has the surprising accusations, which include the parents installing tracking software on Aubrey&rsquo;s electronics (emphasis added):</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">Despite her good grades and success in musical shows,&nbsp;<strong>David and Julie Ireland often drove 600 miles from Leawood, Kan., to visit their daughter unannounced</strong>. They accused her of using&nbsp;<strong>illegal drugs</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>promiscuity</strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>suffering from mental woes</strong>.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">She insisted none of that was true and asked them to stop, but their accusations escalated. They informed her department head she had mental issues that could force them to go to court to have her treated.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>The parents knew about what they saw as their daughter&rsquo;s problems because, they admit, they installed monitoring software on her laptop and cellphone, allowing them to see her every keystroke and phone number dialed or received</strong>. It was &ldquo;like I was a dog with a collar on,&rdquo; said the daughter, a dean&rsquo;s list student every quarter.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">The parents became such an issue that the school hired security guards to keep them out of their daughter&rsquo;s performances. When the parents stopped paying her tuition because she&rsquo;d cut off all contact with them, the school gave her a full scholarship for her final year.</p> <p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just been really embarrassing and upsetting to have my parents come to my university when I&rsquo;m a grown adult and just basically slander my name and follow me around,&rdquo; the accomplished young actress&nbsp;<a href="" target="_blank">said</a>&nbsp;in court.</p> <p>Her mother responded: &ldquo;She&rsquo;s an only child who was catered to all her life by loving parents. We&rsquo;re not bothering her. We&rsquo;re not a problem.&rdquo;</p> <p><span>The relationship, to say the least, isn&rsquo;t doing well. Julie Ireland is trying to get back the $66,000 the parents had already spent on Aubrey&rsquo;s education and have accused her of being a &ldquo;good actress and lying.&rdquo; A third-party &ldquo;interventionist,&rdquo; however, has even sided with Aubrey.</span></p> <p><span><span>So for now, the parents have been ordered to stay at least 500 feet away from their daughter until Sept 23, 2013.</span></span></p><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> Alec Baldwin Blasts NY Post As 'Morally Bankrupt Trash' After Alleging He Had Affair Fri, 30 Nov 2012 11:44:00 -0500 Aly Weisman <p><img style="float:right;" src="" border="0" alt="apple alec baldwin iphone" /></p><p>Alec Baldwin really did not appreciate when <a href="" class="hidden_link">New York Post</a> writer Andrea Peyser wrote a column Thursday alleging the newlywed actor had an affair and called him<span>&nbsp;a &ldquo;bully-boy.&rdquo;&nbsp;</span></p> <p>In the column <a href="" target="_blank">"Drop it, Alec! Baldwin 'Lover Gal' Has Suffered Enough!'</a> Peyser writes Baldwin is a "bloviating psycho who seduce[s] small women and bash[es] puny photographers,&rdquo; while&nbsp;defending his "<span>busty Canadian cutie"</span>&nbsp;<a href="" target="_blank">alleged summer stalker</a>,&nbsp;Genevieve Sabourin.</p> <p>Peyser writes that Sabourin, who spoke to her exclusively, was not a stalker, just a scorned ex-fling: "<span>She told me that when their romantic evening was done, after they&rsquo;d gone to Central Park, to the theater, to dinner and to bed, the guy dumped her &mdash; with a text message!"</span></p> <p>Baldwin hasn't denied the fling, but is currently trying to keep Sabourine <a href="" target="_blank">in jail&nbsp;</a><span><a href="" target="_blank">on $5,000 bail</a> for allegedly Twitter-stalking Baldwin and what Peyser writes is "his temporary wife," Hilaria Thomas. Harsh.</span></p> <p>Baldwin took to his <a href="" class="hidden_link">Twitter</a> to express how he felt about Peyser's column.</p> <p><span><span><span>"Everyone who breathes air knows the&nbsp;</span><em>Post&nbsp;</em><span>is the worst newspaper in human history ... But shame on them for politicizing a criminal case ... and shame on the morally bankrupt partisan trash Andrea Peyser, who demeans all women by inferring that a charge of criminal harassment is overkill when the defendant is a woman. The 'lovesick' defense."</span></span></span></p> <p><span><span>Baldwin has since deleted his series of tweets, but luckily <a href="" target="_blank">The Hollywood Reporter</a> caught them before they vanished:</span></span></p> <script src="//" type="text/javascript"></script> <noscript>[&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="//" target="_blank"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;View the story "Alec Baldwin vs. Andrea Peyser and NY Post" on Storify&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;]</noscript><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p>