I did promise some filthy details to y'all. Those who care about such things must not be disappointed. Those who read this should be notified so that some form of word can get out, even if the full details are notably lacking.
There's a predator working in the Queensland-New South Wales area and he operates on older women who have lost their husbands. Given what I've heard, what he's done is not his first rodeo and I wouldn't put it past him to have several ladies at various stages of... 'operations'.
Let's call him Garbageman. I first heard about him after he'd begun work on Capt S and things were on the 'too late' side of we-got-troublesville.
It's the time windows that got my hackles up. Garbageman picked a time of maximum vulnerability, six months after the death of her hubby, to start contact and seem friendly. In less than two months, he had moved himself, his vehicle, and his stuff into her place. He was also dictating how she lived her life.
Major league creepazoid.
I'm trying to get things roughly in order, and I don't have all the details, but I have the rough shape of the pattern of behaviour.
- Garbageman runs one or more popular hobby forums on Facebook and uses them as a kind of duck blind
- Looks for older women writing about how lonely they are
- Initiates contact during a period of maximum vulnerability
- Turns up at some later time in apparent need of some place to stay for an unspecified length of time
- Uses this as leverage to start dictating his victims' life. What to eat, when to turn the lights off and so forth
- Also helps himself to whatever he likes: attempting to throw out items she owns, eating the more expensive foods, and so forth
- At one point or another, he goes on a trip to other places (probably a different victim) very likely to make her realise how lonely she is without him
- Comes back to be an even bigger pain in the arse than previously.
- Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
He takes trips away so that she doesn't get ticked off with him enough to actually complain to the authorities. He's an older bloke, so he feigns needing understanding and assistance. Aggression is initially masked as joking, though I don't see any humour in being able to murder someone and make it look like an accident.
He graduates pretty quickly into verbal abuse and intimidation tactics like straight up moving in and then swanning around with his kit off. He even attempted to appear like a new, defacto partner to her medical people.
Now you see why I call him Garbageman.
The plan amongst the family is to keep someone there and drive him off, but that doesn't help anyone else. If this sort of thing can warn ANYONE off of Garbageman, then I'm all for it.
Spread the word. If you know anyone with a pattern of behaviour like this, do everything you can to protect the victim. This guy could be violent if provoked.
"Remove the prey" seems to be like a valid tactic with Garbageman. So spread the word. Maybe some ex-victims will be able to come forward and this guy can go away for a long, long time.
I can only hope.
Beware of the warning signs:
- No friends to rely on
- No family either
- A quick escalation from friendliness to toxic as hell
- Feigning mental troubles to seem like he needs help
- Domineering behaviour
Don't let it get as far as the last one. Find an excuse to be there. Find ways to drive him off. Keep your loved ones safe. Then kick his arse.