High School girl stalked by online predator
by Erica Jordan
Exchange Staff
"Wanna meet sometime?" BigFun6969 types to Alexa. Struggling to think of
what to say, she looks at her clock and sees that it reads 3:27 a.m. "Look,
I've gotta go to bed. I have to get up early for school," she types, her
screen name reading SexyLexyXoXo.
A notification comes up asking if Alexa
wants to accept a photo. Hesitating, she clicks yes, and waits for the
picture to load. Just like BigFun6969 had described, the photo showed a
6'2'', 22 year old guy with chestnut brown hair, ocean blue eyes, a set of
chiseled abs, and a defined jaw that made him look straight out of an
Abercrombie & Fitch advertisement. Astounded, Alexa types to him "are you
sure this is you?" He responds "of course it is baby; let's meet tomorrow
night."
"I've never been in a chat room before that night,"
said Alexa. Alexa has always been self conscious. Standing at 5'8'', 120
pounds, she could very well be mistaken for supermodel Gisele Bundchen which
makes her friends wonder why she's unhappy with herself. "I look at myself,
and just don't feel pretty. Guys look at me like I'm a piece of meat, and I
want that to change," she says. She's had few boyfriends in the past, but
nothing serious. Alexa wasn't the type to sleep around and have random
hookups like many thought she did.
On February 16th, Alexa logged into her
first chat room titled 'Single Lovers.' "I don't know what got over
me. Maybe I was looking for a guy to be nice to me, or for someone to just
talk to me and not about me to their friends," Alexa said. It
was 3:00 p.m when she entered the room, and immediately people began to
instant message her. ASL? They'd ask her, which meant
age/sex/location. She'd respond 17/female/Massachusetts.
One person in particular messaged her. The screen name
was BigFun6969. He didn't welcome her with ASL, but instead said "hello
sweetheart how are you this afternoon?" "I thought this guy was different
because he didn't start with asking me my information, or ask me to have
cyber sex with him." They began chatting, getting to know each other, and
before she knew it, it was already 8 p.m. By then, she learned he was 22
years old from Rhode Island, his name was Drew, he drove a 2002 black Chevy
Blazer, had three sisters and one brother, and enjoyed dinner at Italian and
Japanese restaurants.
Looking over at the pile of Math, English, and History
homework thrown on her plaid printed bed, Alexa thought about signing
offline and doing her assignments. "I was having such an awesome time
talking to him because he was just a good person, and wasn't asking me my
breast or waist size or anything personal like that."
Towards 10 o'clock, Drew and Alexa were getting
closer. She told him about the way guys treated her, and how she felt like
all they wanted from her was sex. "Baby don't listen to them, they're not
worth it. You need an older man like me," Drew typed to her. Alexa felt
happier than she had ever felt before, and wanted to get to know this guy
more and more.
As her eyes grew heavy, she nodded off for a minute,
returning to seven messages of "where are you? Are you okay? You there?" all
from Drew.
By midnight, Drew apparently began getting a little too
comfortable with Alexa. "He asked me if I would ever consider meeting up
with him, since he only lived in Providence, Rhode Island which is about an
hour from where I live," Alexa said. She was unsure of what to say, so she
changed the subject. "Alexa, I want to see a photo of you," Drew told her.
Alexa happily sent him a photo of her at her wearing a pink Hollister tank
top, a jean skirt, and her blonde hair all scrunched from a day at the
beach.
"Beautiful girl. I love Cape Cod" Drew told
her. Panicked, Alexa wondered how he knew she was from the cape. "I froze
when I looked at the photo and noticed I was standing in front of a sign
that said 'Old Silver Beach, Falmouth's best beach," said Alexa. Things were
starting to get awkward for Alexa as Drew told her all the places he had
been in Cape Cod, including the Silver Lounge, a restaurant which happened
to be one mile away from her house.
"I wanted to sign offline, but I was
still so happy to have someone to talk to." Drew kept pursuing that they
meet, and how he would be such a great boyfriend for her. He started telling
her what he would do to her, but in a romantic way. "He wanted to kiss me
like I was an angel, and hold me close to him, which no guy had ever done
for me," said Alexa.
By 2:45 a.m., Alexa was getting sleepy, but Drew was
getting excited. He told her he wanted to share a bottle of Cristal with her
as they lay out on a beach during the sunset. When Drew finally sent a
picture of him, Alexa thought it was almost too good to be true. "Lexy I
could be there in an hour if you want to see me," Drew said. Not knowing
what to say, Alexa told him she had to get to bed because she had a test in
the morning. "Alright sweetie I'll talk with you tomorrow hopefully," Drew
said.
It took Alexa almost an hour to get to sleep that
night. "Thoughts were running through my mind. I really liked this guy
because he wanted me for me, not for my body, and I really didn't think it
could be true that this was happening."
The next morning, Alexa headed to school and shared her
story at lunch with her friends Kayla and Lauren. "They told me to be
careful, and to stop talking to him because he probably wasn't who he said
he was," she said.
That afternoon, Alexa was walking home from school and
noticed a man struggling with an oversized map, looking confused. She
couldn't help but laugh and go over to help him.
He was around 55 years old with gray straggly hair. His
hairy stomach peaked out from his yellow stained t-shirt; he was wearing
glasses, a Red Sox hat, and carrying a small backpack. "He put the map down
and looked at me strangely," she said. Smiling, he showed her the map and
pointed at Old Silver Beach, telling her he was looking for it. "Alexa;
it's me, Drew."
Alexa dropped her backpack along with her Old Navy
purse. "Stay away from me," said Alexa. He opened his backpack and pulled
out two brown paper bags filled with ham sandwiches, small bags of chips, and
a bottle of sparkling water. Next, he had a red and white checkered blanket
followed by two wine glasses and a bottle of Cristal, just like he
mentioned. "Lexy, I want to have a picnic with you, and get to know you
better," he said. This couldn't be happening, Alexa thought. She looked
behind him and noticed the Chevy Blazer just like he described. "Look, if
you don't leave me alone I'm calling the police," Alexa said while slowly
backing up.
Drew's face turned red, and he grabbed her by the arms,
pulled her into him, and kissed her deeply. His rough prickly face rubbed
against her smooth complexion as he shoved his stubby little tongue into her
mouth. "LET GO OF ME!" she screamed once he was done kissing her.
He lifted her up, carried her over to his car, and put her in the back seat. Alexa
kicked and screamed the entire way, but there was no one around to hear her.
Climbing in with her, he ripped off her jeans and
grabbed a condom out of his pocket. Alexa went numb. "I couldn't think of
anything. I lay there motionless as he struggled with unzipping his jeans,"
she said. He finally got it unzipped and forced himself into her.
All of a
sudden, she remembered something from a class called RAD that her school
offered which taught woman how to be defensive during rape. She grabbed his
neck like she was pulling him in for a kiss which surprised Drew. He
loosened his tight grip on her, and at that moment, she kneed him right in
his groin.
Running out of his car, she grabbed her cell phone and
called 911. Being in so much pain, Drew couldn't move right away, and was
fortunately there when the police arrived. Alexa was taken to the hospital
to get checked to make sure nothing was wrong with her. "All I wanted to do
was slap myself over and over for being such a stupid idiot," she said.
Drew is actually from a small town in Virginia. He made
the nine hour drive overnight to see Alexa. Police did a background check
and it turned out he had been arrested for something similar to this. He had
logged onto a chat room eight months prior to this incident and tried to
solicit a minor. He drove out to the 15 year old girl and tried to rape her,
but she got away. He was given two years probation for his actions. Alexa's
family pressed charges against Drew and are still going through the court
process. Drew is currently in jail waiting for his trial.
"It's only been two months since he was arrested, but
I'm still scared he's going to find me again even though he's in jail
currently," said Alexa.
Alexa doesn't enter chat rooms anymore. She changed
her screen name and even her cell phone number in case he somehow traced
her. "What bothers me the most is the fact that my virginity was taken by a
creepy old man who had nothing better to do but to prey on naive young
girls," she said. Most people don't know Alexa's story.
Only her family and closest friends were chosen to hear
it. "I'm depressed. I wake up, go to school, come home, and go to bed. I
don't go out anymore, I don't sign online anymore, and I can't work up the
effort to hang out with friends," said Alexa. It's only been two months, but Alexa doesn't know how she will get over this.
"I want people to know that
they need to be careful online. Don't believe everything you hear because
it's easy to get attached to something online that may not be real. And
whatever you do, don't show any personal information through pictures or
your member profile," Alexa said.
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