When someone broke into my house, ransacked it, and left, I thought it was my husband. We were separated in 2013, and had agreed to live apart, and even to date other people. I had a restraining order against him, because he physically abused me. We reconciled, and he told me he didn’t break into the house. No one seemed to know who did it. When I filed a police report, one of my friends was with me, and so were my parents. Neither my parents, nor my friend broke into my house. The officer who took the report kept smiling while he took the report and acted like he wasn’t taking it seriously. He treated it like a joke. My parents were upset, as was I. It was not something we found to be funny.
Two years later, I was at work, when another individual confronted me and told me that groups in the community wanted me dead. Due to my line of work, I figured that some people were bitter over end of the year reports. I shrugged it off and told her thank you for her concern. I didn’t take her comments seriously. I thought she was being overly dramatic.
My family and I moved to another city the next year. We had new jobs. My brother-in-law babysat for us, and lived with us. One day, he was physically attacked in the community, while walking down the street. Then it happened again. He tried to let an officer know that he was being attacked by what appeared to be a homeless man, but the officer tased my brother-in-law. We lost our babysitter due to that. My husband then began to notice his hours being cut at work. They cut his hours so greatly, that he finally questioned it. They told him that they would be firing him soon and didn’t explain why. I told my boss about all of this, and told him that I didn’t know how my family would afford to stay in town. Then, I began to encounter a person at work who would throw items at me while I was doing my job. This began to occur on a near daily basis. She would scream at me, often saying rude, or abusive things at me. I reported this to my boss, but all he could tell me was that “there are certain powerful groups in the community and it was best not to ruffle any feathers.” I resigned and told him that I worried for the safety of my family. We moved again.
I took a job mid-year in the city near where my parents had raised me. I began to encounter harassment. I began to be bullied by individuals at my job site. One day at lunch, I went through a drive-thru and was served a frozen coffee drink that contained the contents of a broken thermometer and possibly some chem lab chemicals. I was also called into my boss’ office and grilled over my vital records. He filmed his interrogation of me, and told me that we would be having more of these conversations in the future. I felt uncomfortable and left my job.
My parents were furious that I left my job. I tried to join the army and become a medic. I met with recruiters, took an ASVAB, scored really well, and was ready to ship out to BMT. I didn’t pass the physical health portion: I have a metal clip on one of my arteries from a past surgery. I had already signed over my children to my mother. I was left with nothing. I had even sold my vehicle, and given away my dog. I picked up work as a lifeguard after that, and eventually found a new job in my old career field. Unfortunately, I was chased out of that job by a gang member that approached me in my home town, and verbally explained that she would shoot me, if I kept my job. I told this to my boss, and he didn’t deny the presence of territorial gangs in the vicinity of the jobs site. He recommended that I resign for my own safety.
I spent a lot of time traveling. I have visited 14 different countries, in all at this point. It is all due to trying to avoid the gangs in California. They would have had to apply for a passport and then buy plane tickets to follow me to some of the places where I went. I chose countries that wouldn’t tolerate their gang presence there. I had a wonderful time abroad. I was never bullied, or threatened, until I visited Ireland, but I stayed for far too long, and began to notice Americans around me when those things occurred.
Around 2022, I accepted a full time job in my career field and immediately experienced another threat. This time, a teenager handed me death threats written on card stock that I had been using at my job. The threats specifically mentioned that a local gang wanted to hurt me. I took the written threats to my boss, who said he couldn’t offer much help. He suggested that I resign and work someplace safer. I did. I left that job, booked a ticket to France, and stayed there for about a week. I then traveled to Scotland, and then stayed almost a year in Ireland. I could t work abroad without a visa, and couldn’t attain a work visa without finishing my case for permanent residency. I became so financially distressed that I asked to have my application removed from the immigration process. I asked to be sent home, to California.
I took another job, as soon as I arrived home. It was going really well. I had a great time working at various assignments for about five months. Then it happened: Someone threatened me. I was told by a male that some gang wanted to shoot me (I paraphrase here). He then threatened to beat me up himself (again I paraphrase to remove obscenities). I took this information to my boss. One of my coworkers was in the room when this occurred, but she often flirts with the individuals that are part of this male’s social circle within the room. She refused to back me up on what was said. She played dumb and said (and I quote this word for word), “I didn’t see nothing!” That is the local clientele with which I work, everyone! That, right there! My boss decided to do an investigation into the matter. Another male in the room then announced he had overheard the threats. I was so happy to hear that someone (besides myself), was being honest in regard to what was said to me! Regardless, of this fact, my boss called me into his office and asked me to resign. He told me, “you deserve to work someplace safe.” He didn’t deny that I was threatened. He removed me from my job assignment. I have not been threatened since March of this year.
So what is my problem, right? Why am I posting this. For the past few weeks, planes and police helicopters have been flying really low over my parents’ isolated house in our rural community. They aren’t doing this at all times of the day. They specifically do this when I am outside, exercising, after work. I have also noticed bikers riding by our house, very slowly, and staring at me. I ride motorcycles, too. I owned more than one motorcycle between 2018 and 2020, and have yet to buy another one since selling those. Why does this matter? Two of my ex boyfriends work for law enforcement. One works for a local police department and the other works for a local sheriff’s department. I feel that since my husband and I separated, they have been abusing their law enforcement powers to harass me. I believe that my house was ransacked and robbed in 2013 by someone affiliated with one, or both, of my ex boyfriends. I fee that is the reason my police report was not taken seriously by the reporting officer. In 2017, I was picked up without an arrest, or a warrant, or even for suspicion of a crime, just so that the sheriff’s department could have me strip searched at a local facility in front of their staff members. I had not even committed a crime. They tried to say that I was being strip searched and held because my parents were worried about me. My parents told me they had not contacted them at all. That day, I was targeted on the freeway, followed off the off-ramp, pulled over by a sheriff’s car (outside of their jurisdiction) and told that they wanted me searched. They would not tell me why. They did not accuse me of a crime. They simply called an ambulance and told me that I had to get into the ambulance. I wasn’t speeding. I wasn’t driving erratically. I wasn’t drunk, or on drugs. I was driving my own vehicle that I had legally purchased that year, and insured. I had never been arrested. I had never had any past criminal record at all, aside from past speeding tickets. When I arrived at the facility, a male staff member decided to watch my strip search, which was being conducted by female nurses. I am physically female and did not look male at all before shaving my head many years later. The male who watched me, was a former classmate of mine from college. He was not assigned to be part of the strip search. He was there on his own, to observe, apparently without permission from his supervisor. I want to sue. I would like to sue the local sheriff’s department for all of my pain and suffering since at least 2017. If they have any ties to the robbery of my home in 2013, then I would like to sue them for ALL of my pain and suffering.
That’s it. That’s all I wanted to say. Oh, and if any commenters want to attribute the harassment to the fact that I shave my head, just be reminded that I first shaved my head about seven year AFTER this harassment first started. I don’t care if some ex boyfriend of mine is lashing out at me, because he’s bitter and spiteful, or if it’s because he’s lonely and thinks this is a way to force an ex girlfriend back into his life; I want to be left alone. My trip to that sheriff’s facility ended with me being told that I had PTSD! A doctor was brought in to evaluate me and my past medical records (including my gallbladder removal from 2008). The doctor looked at my chart, saw that surgery, and declared that I was probably having discomfort from that surgery; prompting a PTSD diagnosis from him. I left with forms that said PTSD. I later returned to their records office to ask for a copy of my report from that day. My ex-boyfriend opened the door to the records office, wearing another man’s name badge, smiling cruelly at me, and handed me an envelope of forms. I opened the forms and the wording the doctor had used and written on the first report was changed. The papers were warm, like they came off of a printer a moment before I arrived, and the report on the form was hand-written in black ink. The ink was still wet, as if someone had just written the report a minute before I arrived. I am convinced that my ex-boyfriend rewrote forms after reprinting blank ones. There are no words that I can use to express how frustrating and dehumanizing this whole situation has been since about 2013. I have tried to find low cost lawyers. I have filed federal reports. No one seems to care. I hate to say this, but if I were black, people would care, because it would be a race issue. I’m not, though; I’m a white, female, in her mid-thirties, and absolutely no one cares.