Walker Hayes

Transcript

I just so happen to open up one of those random letters or messages on my DM and it was like, I'm coming and I'll see you on this date, I need to know, you know, where you're going to be. And I was like, I'm not responding to this. And then it was. I'll be there. I booked my flight and then I didn't say anything, and it was like a verification of a flight got sent. There was only about three or four people that were still remaining in the Miss Universe organization office, of which I had known. So I get a phone call from the gentleman, the doorman downstairs, asking if I can if they say, okay, that I let Larry come upstairs now. At the time, Larry was the CFO of Miss Universe Organization, so I said, Oh yeah, and it made sense because he was one of the few people that was still here in New York. So all of a sudden I hear a knock at the door. And again, he said it was Larry, so I open the door and there is a gentleman standing in front of me with a backpack and I'm thinking to myself, Larry is up, you know, a middle aged white man. And here's this like six foot something black gentleman standing in front of me with a backpack. And he looks at me and he says, Are you Aaron? And I said, Yes, you did a Facebook Live video and telling everyone how in love with me. He was at that point, my dad turned around and he said, Samantha, you need to block him. You need cut ties. This is getting ridiculous now. So I did. And then after that, I posted on my social media, Berman mind. He was blocked, and I said that I was starting a new job because I was at the time I was manager. I was going to be manager of nursery and I started my new job and my first morning that was Sam. And I look around at eight o'clock in the morning. I think it is here and obviously England is cold and dark, so it literally was cold and dark. So it was very creepy. I looked around home with that walk down the street, got to the front door and I had Sam and then running and I look behind me and it was him and he grabbed me, pushed me into the door and was like, Unblock me, unblock me. Why do you block me any reason you did well at Miss England? Because I was told them, you were my girlfriend? Like, I don't understand I'm in love with you. Britney Bell is famously known as Miss Guam at 2014 and has been stalked by an unknown assailant for over five years. Miss USA 2013 Aaron Brady was stalked by an obsessed fan throughout her pageant ring, and Samantha Mumford, a former Miss England contestant and Miss Pool 2018, was stalked by a wannabe rapper who fell in love with her on Facebook. I'm Jamie Bibby and I'm Jake Tapper, Tula. On today's episode of Strictly Stalking, we dig into the world of beauty queens. They're in the public eye. They rely on their fans for support to win pageants, and too many have had to learn the difference between a fan and a stalker. First, we'll hear from Brittany Bell. She was crowned Miss Arizona 2010 and Miss Guam 2014. She was also a dancer for the Phoenix Suns of the NBA. Now she runs her own clothing company and is an actor and a mother. Here's Brittney. I think the beginning was just as a little girl, I always liked things like in performance world. I've always been attracted to that. I didn't think of anything beyond like getting the express your creative side. So that's how I got started in college. I started modeling. I loved being able to transform into like different, you know, different personas and and just like front of the lens. And then it turned into broadcast journalism, my degree. And while I was in college, a model of the college degree and I took that into the world of the MBA, I decided to dance. I didn't have professional dance background, but I was just like, Let's go for it. So I started to dance for the MBA, and that was when I was exposed to this world of just like representing something bigger than myself. So I represented the Phoenix Suns, and while I was in Arizona, in college, I did that for three years and then I was like, This is not enough. I want to represent more. If I could do it for a team with 15 girls, I could do it by myself for the entire state. So I ended up doing Miss Arizona. I won that and went on to Miss USA from Miss USA. I went on and did other pageants here that I did like Miss. I wouldn't move to California and I did Miss California America and just miss your city. These little things here and there. And then I ended up at Miss Universe, representing Guam, which is the kind that, well, the U.S. territory. Well, yes. So Guam is where my half of my family is from on my mom's side, and so I went represented the U. The U.S. territory of Guam at Miss Universe. And from there I moved back to L.A. and I'm still here acting and modeling and doing everything with the broadcasting and hosting. So that's me in a space of a nutshell, as I can give you. It seems like Britney started out in the industry, like many other young girls do, is falling into it and doing one pageant after another. As she gained popularity and became more well known, her stalker started escalating. But first started when I was getting a lot of like Twitter messages, and I thought it was just an innocent fan. And I was like, OK, you know, I'm doing the Miss Universe. This is around the time I was doing Miss Universe Glam and I was like, OK, no problem. And then all of a sudden it picked up to a point where it was like getting eerie. Or it was like, like, what were they saying? You know, I know, I know you. You don't like it. When I say, like, it's been so much that I'm like, I can't even pinpoint things, but along the lines of like, you know, I know you don't like it when we when we do this or sometimes you get mad at me and I know you get mad at me, but I'm like, I've never gotten mad at you before. It would be things like that. Or or, you know, I can't do this with you anymore, and I'm going to have to break up with you. And I'm like, We have any. I've never replied to this person at all. And then it would be things like, you know, our, you know, my friends and family think I'm crazy for being with you, but you know, we're just going to have to push through. I have faith in us, and then all of a sudden it'd be like, I know your friends don't like me. I know they've been talking about me now. They'd have this ongoing thing. And then I would get like, you know, little emoji type things, letters, poems, these things that I would just kind of scroll. Eventually, I just scroll through and then it became paragraphs. I'm in the public eye. I was doing a World Poker tour. I worked for the organization and I would do tour stops. At one point, I was stopped in Las Vegas when I was in Las Vegas. We promote players. Come see us. We'll be at this. And then I, I just so happen to open up one of those random letters or messages on my DM. And it was like, I'm coming and I'll see you on this date. I need to know, you know, where you're going to be. And I was like, I'm not responding to this. And then it was, I'll be there. I booked my flight and then I didn't say anything, and it was like a verification of a flight got set. So this person actually shows up in Vegas to propose to Britney without her even replying back to them. Well, I mean, we've learned the best thing to do is not to respond. But in this case, it just didn't stop this person from hunting her down and showing up at another event. It became serious when they actually showed up to a restaurant at the location I was in and they had said, I'll be at this restaurant at this time. Oh, and I see that your friends are talking about me. Tell them to stop talking about me. Wow. And I had gotten sent like a rose to my job with a note. And it was written in Spanish. So I'm like, I don't think this person speaks Spanish because they don't have that cultural background. But then I got this. It was the weirdest timing. And then I got another message. And then I said to my supervisor at the time, that was watching the tournament, I said, Hey, there's this weird person. They say that they're here. I don't know if they're really here. So they went and sent someone to see at the time that they said they'd be there if they sure enough was there with the ring, with the box waiting for me at this time, that was never set up like between me and the person. Given that I brought it to their attention, I think they felt like I was because I was on their time. I was their responsibility, so they went ahead and they've been working with me at that point for like five years. So they were like protective, like family. And I saw them more than my own family, so they totally took it seriously. So they sent someone out. And luckily, on the tour, one of the players in the poker world happened to be a private investigator, and I had no clue. And they knew somewhere in there and they asked the person to look into it. And when I was taken away, I was put into a specific room, switched rooms because they were like, this person, fine, you know? And when I went up into the room, they were just like, Just stay here. We're going to just be sure that this person is cleared. It's a good thing that people working with Britney at the poker tournaments read this very seriously and began to look into it for too many times when I, stalking victim asks for help. The law refuses to do anything and actually have to just take matters into their own hands. Yes, and hiring a private investigator or becoming your own detective and turning the table in your stalker can be time consuming and expensive. But luckily, there was a private investigator working with the poker tournament and was able to look into things for Brittany and find out a little more about this person. Let's see what she learned. The private investigator said that I don't know how they found the information, but they were able to locate the person's location they were from Florida was able to get their phone number was able to because I had to send like the social media info and that was it was able to get on the phone with them and said that this person says that they had met me and that we had a connection. Have you been to Florida? Was it? I had to sit there and I'm like, No way. I've never met this person. And then they said, Well, he says that he met you at a Macy's in Florida, and I'm like a Macy's in Florida. When and then it really. I realized, OK, miss universe. I was there for a promo over there. And then the details came. You went into the back of the Macy's shoe department for a holding session during one of your promo events for Miss Universe. We literally were in and out. We were in taking photos, got put in the side on the back. There was a big crowd and then pulled back out, and that was that. We said hello to the staff and walked away. That was it. And in that moment, they felt that this person thought that there was a connection and just found me on social media. I don't remember that person. I remember, like maybe three to four people in this back room area. And we said, hi, and we stood there, and they might have said, Can we take a picture right in a group? And then we were just like, OK, OK, great. Thanks. Yeah, and then walked away. And it's clear, it's clear that the person is not quite stable. That's an understatement, but it's very and it's very in depth. And that for me, I was just like, Gosh, this person. But then it became even clearer to me as they researched the background and when they researched his background because they did like a background check and they're like, Well, criminal history is limited, so you're safe. And I was like, OK. Then he said, Well, the name didn't match. And they were like, the names not matching. And I'm like, OK. And they were like, Well, the name that he goes by is a male name. But the the name that we researched in the background check associated a birthday, and all this stuff is a female. And it turns out that this person who's been in this made up relationship with you is a female turned male. Well, holy s**t, I didn't see that coming. She didn't remember meeting this person, but then that one meeting was like everything. Britney basically became a player in this person's delusional fantasy land, but also this person was born a female and was transitioning into a male, so it was even harder to find any background information on them in Britney's life has changed so much since she discovered who was stalking her. The private investigator told the person, Do not contact her. Stop messaging her. You are told not to. The authorities are involved. Totally gave them the bottom line about it all. And so it stopped for a little bit, maybe a few weeks, maybe two weeks. A few weeks, maybe Max, like maybe a month or so, and then in came the messages again. And so at this point, I don't even know what the last one has said, but I just because I it's it's just so much, right? And so I don't open it. I don't accept it. I don't friend, I don't do anything. I just let it sit there unless I have to just be careful. Because when things happen, like there have been things that have happened, I've had, uh, broke how, you know, things broken into, I think, just by chance. But at those moments, you don't know exactly. So in those moments, I go back and I'm like, OK, is this person in town? Like, What have they been saying? So there's always that watching my back or. And it is scary. I've been led to tears at times where I have been so scared of like, what if this is that person? Or where if you just don't know the motives and there's levels to that motives like somebody could just want a shirt you're wearing and want to smell it like that? Weird. It's those mysteries that you're just like, Wait, could this be that person? And then you just you get freaked out like things getting stolen from your car. You think, Oh, that's just vandalism. But in this case, you would be like, What if it's that person, you know, or things your house? Somebody rattling the front door trying to get in your house? You're like, Oh, it's a passer by. That's just trying to rob a house. I'm always like, you know, aware of how long I'll be at a place. I've if I'm going to be at a place for too long, I'm always cognizant of like, Well, how long am I going to be here? Is it long enough for someone to get here or if it's, you know, tagging a location? I never, you know, you can tag an address in your Instagram or in your Twitter. You can tag where you're at and they will they can find you there. Just click the map. And so I'll always put something really vague. I'll never say like if I post a picture of my son and we're in, you know, a specific city, I'll the major city, not the specific city always do something really vague. Or if I want to post, I'll post later. I'll save the moment and post it, maybe 20 minutes after I've left. So the private investigator told me the steps that you should take is never respond. Never respond. It doesn't matter. Don't block. Don't do any like just leave the person B and just don't respond to them because anything can feed it. Whether it's a decline or any, it's just best not to respond. So she had to just parts of her life to deal with the fear that this person could come back at any time. I mean, she wouldn't know until it's too late. She's also had an interesting outlook on how she feels about her stalker, though, and the things she's done to help herself and others after this ordeal. I don't feel bad for the sake of like you shouldn't be doing these things like, I'm like, OK, this needs to stop. I have no remorse for needing to protect myself, but at the same time, I'm like, I feel bad for this person the same way anybody else on the street is yelling at the air, having an addiction, you know, on the corner, over here on sunset, you know, I'm just like, I look at those people, my gosh, I feel bad for them. But at the same time, I'm like, This is just a different form of an addiction. And I feel like, gosh, let's just hope it's a safer form. It's not just these people are out here hurting themselves, but then there's the addictions that hurt others. I definitely think that there's so many things that we can do. Just speaking to women specifically because I know women best, because I'm one, but there are things that you can do. And so I developed the non-compete it's organization to teach women about self-acceptance, and we'll spread out to men as well. But first, we start with women, and the reason why I started is because I wanted women to acknowledge their vulnerabilities and look at our insecurities. And I think that the dynamic between men and women or just masculine and feminine, whatever gender is obtaining each of those. But is that there? I feel like ego feeds on insecurities. And if you can acknowledge your insecurities, acknowledge your vulnerabilities and take power over them, you can then be in control of them to the point that you're not taking taken advantage of by other people or find yourself in compromising situations. The noncompete just asks people, you know, what is it that you want out of out of turning your attention into this fulfillment? Why do you feel the need to do these things? Is it really for, you know, I just want to do this? Or is it because you want a certain attention? And I think I think every celebrity likes the attention, and eventually I think it comes to a point where they're like, OK, this is overload. I'm losing my life, and I don't think they understand. I don't think anybody understands like the level of stardom that they end up in, right? In the beginning, they dream about it. But then when it hits, it's like, Oh, everything comes with cons. That's what I think. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us, Britney. You can find more information about the noncompete on Instagram at the noncompete, or you can go online at the noncompete dot org. Next, we've got Aaron Brady on the phone with us. She's a TV host model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Connecticut 2013 and Miss USA 2013. And like so many others in the pageant world, she dealt with a stalker. So I actually competed in Miss Connecticut for the first time when I was 23 years old. I had a girlfriend of mine who had suggested it to me and said, Have you thought about competing in pageants before? Again, I kind of like giggled at her. I did a little bit of research and ended up competing for Miss Connecticut USA and came first runner up. And so a year goes by and my friends were like, Hey, listen, you should really go back and try again. Either you're going to win or you're not. And so I went back for a second time. At this point in time, I was working for a financial company in Hartford, and I had recently started about six months. So I was trying to be incognito with this pageant. The pageant side of me. But I ended up winning and had to tell them that I would be taking off two weeks to go and compete at Miss USA, which at the time was held in Las Vegas for two weeks. And so that's kind of how I got started into it and then again spent two weeks in Las Vegas and inevitably became Miss USA 2013. Also, I won't. I will say that in 2013, the whole social media boom hadn't really quite started. I mean, I did have a Facebook, a personal Facebook page, but I also think that I hadn't had my own Instagram account before this. So all of that winning. You kind of take that on as part of your job. So you I ran the miss, the Miss Connecticut Instagram page. And so that was kind of new to me and the kind of followers that you gained just from that. So that was something I wasn't really familiar with. I mean, you had Facebook, but you're only what maxed out at 5000 followers. And you know, you were like, you only accept the people that you actually know. So I feel like it was very minimal and I'm even winning Miss Connecticut. I still only thought of it as like, Oh, cool people that follow pageants, which in the grand scheme of everybody else, I don't really know how many people that would have been. And then secondly, Connecticut is a very small state. So if you're comparing it to, let's say, California, I mean, even if I had gotten a few thousand more followers, I didn't really guess. I didn't understand the the amount of popularity you gain kind of overnight and then that little spiral effect that kind of happens as a result. So I won Miss Connecticut in December of 2013, and then that following June is when we went to Las Vegas for two full weeks. On there in Las Vegas with 50 other amazing ladies from each state, including the District of Columbia. And so even when you're there, I mean, you almost feel very special because everybody you're walking around with security guards and you have all of this attention and everybody that's there in Vegas is there to see you. And so then you're you understand that it's going to be televised, you're going to be on NBC, you're going to be followed around the Miss USA fan pages are going to be capturing you. So I think little by little, you start to understand that you're kind of becoming something a little bit more than that little niche group of people that you had before you went and competed in one state. But then again, you know, I said I didn't really think about it until the live show when I said, wow, the amount of people that will be tuning in tonight from all of the states and I mean, even in different countries, just to see who's going to be the next Miss USA, who would then inevitably go on to compete for Miss Universe. So it was, I guess, at that point that I realized, I guess, you know, you do kind of become instantly fit. I don't wanna say famous, but much more popular than you were before. Wow, all of a sudden she becomes famous on a whole new level she wasn't prepared for. Right. And as we've learned at this new level of fame can lead to obsessed fans. I would say it's about a couple of months into my reign. So at this point, I had gone to a few events. I again had somebody there with me to kind of protect me as I'm going through, whether it's red carpet or whatnot. I never, ever, ever felt unsafe, especially considering the fact that you're in the middle of New York. There's millions of people. I mean, you kind of figure out your way around, but never, ever did I feel a sense of nervousness. You know, I'm also not naive, but I never felt that I couldn't walk down the street without, you know, being safe. So I was just finishing up a event on a Monday. I want to say it was about 1:00 in the afternoon, and at the time I had the entire Miss Universe organization was actually traveling to the Bahamas for the Miss teen pageant. There was only about three or four people that were still remaining in the Miss Universe organization office, of which I had known. So I get a phone call from the gentleman, the doorman downstairs, asking if I can, if that's okay, that I let Larry come upstairs now. At the time, Larry was the CFO of Miss Universe Organization, so I said, Oh yeah, and it made sense because he was one of the few people that was still here in New York. So all of a sudden I hear a knock at the door. And again, he said it was Larry, so I open the door and there is a gentleman standing in front of me with a backpack and I'm thinking to myself, Larry's, you know, a middle aged white man. And here's this like six foot something black gentleman standing in front of me with a backpack. And he looks at me and he says, Are you Aaron? And I said, Yes, no, I'm kind of panicked because I'm thinking in my head, Why is this man here? How does he know my name? This isn't Larry. So he proceeded to tell me very unusual things I've been following you since you were born. I've had a GPS tracking device on you. We're destined to be together, kind of just rattling off this one line items and everything. All of these things. I'm just saying to myself, you need to back into the apartment and close the door, and I probably shouldn't have even like not I should never have opened it without the chain link. I mean, there was a bazillion things. If I'm looking back on the scenario that I could have done, that was probably a bit smarter. But again, I didn't think twice about it, especially because we kind of have that door man, which to me is the first line of defense, right? Kind of calling and asking you if it's OK, if even if even if I order delivery for food or something, they would call and say, Hey, can we allow the delivery person to come upstairs? So I wouldn't have even questioned it, to be quite honest. And so I end up closing the door and sitting down and just saying to myself, Oh my gosh, I don't know who this man was, and I was very, very rattled. I was very, very kind of just shook it up about the whole thing. So I had waited for about five or 10 minutes, called downstairs. Ask if the gentleman had left. They said yes, and I proceeded to then walk across the street to the Miss Universe organization and tell them about what had just happened. So when I call said, hi, I said, I understand you called me and said that Larry was here to see me. I go, But that is not Larry. I said, I have the gentleman that I was expecting to be is the CFO of the Miss Universe organization, and this was not him, he said. A lot of weird things. And so I made them aware. Then once I had told my manager at the Miss Universe organization that this had happened, I then about a day later boarded the airplane and went to the Bahamas for about a week. So I really hadn't thought much about it other than, like notifying the rest of the ladies once I got to the Bahamas about the situation. And so at that point in time, they actually notified the security at the apartment complex to just tell them, Listen, you have the tapes. If you see this gentleman like, please let us know because we'll have to take. We'll have to take next steps. I returned home from the Bahamas and the security guards downstairs had told me that this guy had come back looking for me, and it was at that point in time that the president of the Miss Universe organization had said, Listen, we have to get the police involved because it's really not safe. The guy now knows where you stay. We need to get the police involved. So we ended up calling the police and they had asked that I go down to the the police department because they had found the guy at like a homeless shelter, the police, the police were receptive. Then they went out and looked for the guy. So I guess they had the footage. They had the footage from when he came back the second time as well, and they were able to just. They ended up locating him, but police ended up locating him. They told me they found him at not too far from the apartment, at a homeless shelter, and they had searched him and searched his belongings, and they found four or five photos of me in his wallet. Wow. Yeah, which was that. That to me was that was the creepiest part. I it was very violating. I don't know. I mean, I know that at that point in time, you have pictures of yourself all over, but to know that somebody has like it, printed them out and put them in their wallet, I mean, people carry their kids' pictures around in their wallet. Wow. This one time it seems the cops took the initiative and were able to help Aaron. Right. And we found out that some cops have a tendency to victim shame or just tell the victim they can't do anything until it's too late. Lucky for her, she had the support she needed. Absolutely. They actually were extremely supportive of it. They understood that they understood the predicament I was in. I mean, I think what's helpful is you figure in New York City amongst pageant winners. You also have beautiful models from all over the world and a lot of public figures. And so in my eyes, it was almost as though they've handled situations like this. Before they brought me in, they made me feel extremely comfortable. They insured me that, you know, you're going to have to pick this guy out of a lineup. But don't worry, he can't see you. We will put a restraining order on him, which they did. And then they ended up. He ended up checking himself into what kind of like a mental facility just to get evaluated. And he was in there for quite some time. So yeah, my visit to the station was, I mean, obviously, I was very nervous just because I've never had to do that before and be just the thought of like having to stand and look at a bunch of strangers and one person in particular who you've never met before, but seemed to have known so much about you with very, very unsettling. After I had gone to the police, they took out the restraining order. I kind of weighed out my options and said, All right, if I call my family and tell them, obviously they're going to think worst case scenario would be extremely concerned, which I don't blame them. But I didn't really say I didn't say anything about it. And then it had leaked to the press. And I had I saw the article, I saw the clip. And then it was also like in the news. And so my family and my friends from back home were communicating to me and say, My God, why didn't you say anything to us? This is really serious. You have a stalker. And so I again, I didn't tell them, basically because I didn't want it to blow up to the extent that it did. I think it's good from an awareness perspective, just so that everybody can kind of have an extra eye looking out. But at the same time, when you're thinking about how many people live in Manhattan, you would even have a clue unless this gentleman introduced himself to me, you know, he could have followed me around for four months or weeks. I mean, I really would never have looked at him any differently because until he said something to me, because you just think about how many people you walk by on a regular basis. So he ended up staying checked into the mental institution for basically the remainder of her reign. And fortunately, she hasn't heard from him since, but the experience has stayed with her and she's changed much of the way she lives her life. It kind of just always makes you wonder, I mean, even now I think about when I go out for a run event like I'm always on alert because you just hear so many crazy stories. And I think having personally experienced something like that and now you think of how crazy social media is, I mean, you really have no idea what kind of information people have about you where they can find out your exact location, where you had dinner last night. I mean, there's so many more ways in which people can figure out where you are and what your interests are. So I feel, if anything, it's just made me even more aware and alert. You know, I think, as I had mentioned, I think it's really just about the awareness. And I and I think, you know, having having to talk about it and kind of relive it even just through through speaking with you both, I think is so important because it again makes people aware and you always say, that's never going to happen to me. No, no. Who would ever want to do that to me? Who would ever think to to follow me? I didn't. I wasn't in a famous movie, or I wasn't this or I wasn't that. And I think it's just reassured me that any little slight question that I would have like that anybody could be thinking anything at any time. And to not be naive and to just always be aware of my surroundings when I go out and kind of like what I post. So we hear this all the time. People just need to be more aware of their surroundings, like put the phone down. Try to avoid walking to your car loan and don't tag your location on social media for sure. And like Aaron said, it can happen to anyone at any time. It's not just beauty queens. Absolutely. Next, we're chatting with Samantha Bumper all the way from England about her stalker. She's not only a beauty pageant winner, she also works as a schoolteacher, and her stalker was a man named Jonathan Deal. He was actually an aspiring rapper, not a very good one, but he did go on Britain's Got Talent and dedicated a song to her. Wow, that's real dedication. So we've got Samantha on the phone with us today. Let's hear how it all began. So it was actually my mum that saw the advertisement. Miss Dorset 2017 and I worked with a charity that was so somehow the width of anything and they were assistance dogs for disabled people. And basically, mum said, You know, if you entered it, you could raise the platform or that charity. And I was like, brilliant. I didn't expect to win it and came away with the title and went away to compete for the Miss England title in 2017. So it was actually two thousand and eighteen that it all really began. I got an ad on on Facebook, which, you know, I get various ads all the time. You know, at the time obviously didn't think anything of it, except, you know, and I saw it then getting like on every post that I did, I got comments. I got a lot of social media attention from this person. So it would be like if I posted something, it would be it would be like, Oh, you know, you look beautiful or, you know, I'm really supporting you the whole way, you know, I want you to win this thing. So obviously, at that stage it was it was supportive. Mm-Hmm. And then it it kind of. I went to England again and basically started turning up to various events that I hadn't invited him to. So he would just turn up to the event and then come over and try and speak to me. Then that night, he had seen me. He would send me a message telling me, you know, that he loved me and that, you know, I looked beautiful and it was great to see me. So it all started sort of bombarding at that point. And I tell everyone in the beginning it was not scary because it was just another supporter being a Miss England go. You need that support. And you know, in the beginning, he was looking like he was supporting me, so I didn't think anything of it. And tell me a little bit about him, like was is he younger or older, good-looking, creepy looking? Oh. Creepy older, and it's like very strange light the minute I first met him, I felt very creeped out. I didn't feel comfortable around him. And that's not like me because I welcomed everybody in so immediately I was a little bit taken aback. But it was because he would say the way when I first met him, which was that an event called Stand Fest and some banks and he just came up to me and went. Hello, I'm Jonathan did when it was like, Whoa, okay, that's just kind of came out nowhere. Like, normally people pretend to know me and go, Hey, it ! You know, I mean. So for him to be like, Well, you know, Hi, Sam, I'm Jonathan Dale. He, like, introduced himself making a point of who he was at the time. And did you recognize him from his posts and reaching out to you on Facebook and stuff? Yeah, absolutely straight away, I knew, because obviously he had been commenting on absolutely everything, like in all my posts, sharing them so I knew who he was and then when he said it made sense, I was like, Oh. And obviously at that point I was just like, It's just a support. I'm really grateful. So at first, she really thought he was just kind of a fan of hers. And although she was uncomfortable around him, she still had to be out there promoting herself for her campaign. So she kind of welcomed his support. Why wouldn't she? I mean, she needs to get more fans, and it's part of the pageant requirements. But then things started escalating. So, yeah, it was constant messages saying how in love with me he was, how excited he was to see me, how he thought I was going to win this England. And then things could get worse because he was like he turned up to pretty much every single event tonight. And it's because I've coached everywhere where I'm going. Obviously, part of the promotional side of everything I do. And basically, he sent me a message and asked me if I could take him to the missing the final one, which was obviously what I was competing in and I was like, I'm sorry, I can't. Anyway, I got something, but I'm fine. Okay? And he was already there, sat down at my VIP table that, you know, he obviously wasn't invited to, and he was all over me and it was like, Whoa, okay. So he traveled all that way to seat eight and the red flag. Really, really. It was when my parents took me to one side and they said, Do you know this guy's a bit creepy? You know, you need to be really careful because he's tried to sit on our table? He told the missing an organization, I was his girlfriend. Oh, and he. Wow. Yeah. And when I came because I came top 17, 55000, go, wow, congrats. Which was the celebration. Yeah, thank you. And basically, he grabbed me and tried to kiss me. And in the mean time of trying to get over to me, he smashed the glass, which obviously made me jump, made everyone around. It was like, Well, what's going on there? And he grabbed me by the arm and then tried to kiss me, and I was like, No, get off me. And then it kind of all really, really escalated from there. And it was basically he was sending me messages all through the night going, How am I getting home? I came to support you. I'm in love with you. You know, the only reason you did so well at Miss England is because I sent you and my girlfriend and it was like, Well, okay. So it was after that he followed me to my workplace. So basically before that, which is like ridiculous. He did an X Factor audition here in Bournemouth, and he devoted his song to me and he posted it on social media life. You did a Facebook Live video and telling everyone how in love with me he was at that point my dad turned around and he said, Samantha, you need to block him. You need to cut ties. This is getting ridiculous now. So I did. And then after that, I posted on my social media bottom line. He was blocked and I said that I was starting a new job because I was at the time I was manager. I was going to be manager of a nursery and I started my new job and my first morning that was Sam. And I look around at eight o'clock in the morning. I think it is here and obviously England is cold and dark, so it literally was cold and dark. So it was very creepy. I look home with that walk down the street, got to the front door and I had Sam and then running and I looked behind me and it was him and he grabbed me, pushed me into the door and was like, Unblock me, unblock me. Why did you block me any reason you did? Well, it was because I was told them, you were my girlfriend. Like, I don't understand I'm in love with you. And it was like, Whoa. So basically, that was kind of, for me, the final straw. And I called my mum and mum said, Look, tonight, we're going to call the police. Got other things to think about. So that night, I was kind of contemplating, Oh, do I need to leave? Maybe he's just a bit obsessed. We'll just leave it. I went and judged the magic, so I just do these different things. I was at the Magic Show and I had a phone call from the CEO at the House of Icons in London, very close friend of mine organization that I'm involved with. And she said, Samantha Stone up in jail. Are you aware you're in 50 different sites on Facebook? Said Pardon. She said you're in 50 different sites on Facebook, which is saying, Where is Samantha? I'm in love with her and I need her to unblock me. Someone tell me where she is. So I was like, Okay, you know what? This is ridiculous. And then she turned around to me hunting to be to the CIA, and she said, Samantha, have you called base over time? So at that point I went, Okay, I'll call. The police thought nothing of it just picked up the phone, told them everything. Immediately, they were within, you know, 12 to 14 hours. They were in my house and they said to me, we're going to go and arrest them on my back. So ridiculous. Only done is, you know, obviously. You know, follow me work, that's the crazy followed me to England, but he's just obsessed. And little did I know 19 previous convictions, so it was stalking and harassment, and then his other convictions are all stalking and harassment with different people. Oh wow. So does he ever type typed you know who else he stalked? Yes, I know that was a 17 year old girl which absolutely destroyed makers are still in school. That's horrible. A homeless person, obviously they couldn't kind of defend themselves. And a work colleague, I know of those three, the others they won't tell me. Wow. He had 19 previous convictions. That's insane. In most of these convictions were for stalking other people. Right. That and it's crazy how the police in England react so differently than they do here. I mean, in the US, the police never react that quickly, whether they have other convictions or not. But I mean, over in England, bam, they're on it. Oh, absolutely. Even after that, all that happened to Samantha, she didn't really realize the danger she was in, even though her gut was telling her something was terribly wrong. I think that women are predisposition to be polite, not listen to their instincts when something like this is happening. We're taught, you know, to be nice and Knock has a scene even when it could be trouble. Oh, absolutely. It's a weird one. I've never experienced that someone who hasn't experienced something. You kind of go with what your gut tells you, and my gut wasn't. It wasn't alarming because I deal with people on a daily basis. But you know, it can be too much that are very full on. But at the same time, at what point do you know? Obviously, now I've been through it, I know straight away called police and I dealt with that. Well, what point do you know that if it's not happened me, or if there's nothing that that can protect you or how you about it, that, you know, stalking wasn't really a big thing when it happened to me last year. It's only recently. I don't have the same in America here. It's only recently kind of coming to light, really. So then it went to court and then I got hold of his convictions properly and I was actually horrified. I remember holding my dad's hand and crying on him. And then we would. I was told in court that you had different social media platforms, but profile. I was like on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter that weren't his name, and they were really weird, very strange names. I can't remember the top of my head, but he had quite one of them was his mum's name, which was Divine Wolf, and he used to follow me through that and he admitted that in court. He's based in Bournemouth. I'm, you know, I sort of live in the pool area. You know, we're not in the same circles, if that makes sense. So I don't know how he found me. The only thing I can think of is that he. Friends of friends, because there are people that I know that that he's friends now, I don't know if that was before me. But there are some sort of connection between us. We've got two people, friends on Facebook. He's an aspiring model, actor and singer, so they sentenced him to six months in prison, so he went to prison for three months because England has this thing where they only do half their sentence. But again, I don't know. Same with America. This is what we have. Unfortunately, I don't agree with the system personally and everyone knows that. So he went away for six months, came out of the three, breached two weeks later and went straight back to prison. Wow. How did he breach it? He liked a photo of me on social media and shared posts relating to me, so the court threw him back away. So he breached it again by liking your photos and sharing. So how long? How long did he get this next time? Again, sentenced to six months, I needed three came out same sentence, and then and then I assume he breached it again. All right. Well. They the police said it was a breach. And this is why I have to be careful with the CPS because actually the CPS have come back and they said, No, we don't agree it's a breach, so we'll let him out. Oh wow. What did he do after all these convictions so they won't take it to court? They're just going to release him. He's in jail at the moment, whether he comes out in a couple of days or earlier or later. I don't really know at this stage because the CPS have only just sent me the details saying that, you know, they've closed the case and it's not going to court anymore. So I'm not really too sure because they haven't really given me too much information on it. After all that, he just goes to jail for a couple of months, gets back out again. We've seen this over and over again, Jamie Stockers just don't get that much time for stalking. It's not until they physically harm their victims that they get actual jail time. So true. Oh, I want him to go to Crown Court and I want him to get a minimum of five years, which he'd serve two and a half. I'm not saying the only people who keep me safe is Dorset Police and you know, I am safe with them because they are so quick to be there and to support me. So let's hear how all this has changed Samantha's life and what she had to do differently. I do still post online, but I don't attend near enough as many events as I used to because it worries me. One, I've got to think of myself that really mainly because they've got people around me. So attending these events and prominent, I've kind of come away from the fashion crowd and I'm just doing things with them because, you know, hoping that it could be a fixation with the title rather than like that. And it could be that. But I did that and he still preached again. Well, they're not calling it race, but to me he does. But the stalking register I'm setting up is basically all about kind of getting a justice. So if he was breached, he would go straight away to prison. There'd be no question he'd be arrested and be back in prison, and it would go straight to Crown, not magistrate. Not only that, people like victims can call up the police and they can access details on someone say, for example, you know, with my case of Jonathan deal, if I could actually, I'd say I just like to get a little bit of an understanding on this character. Jonathan, do. Has he got previous in stalking? So they go in the system and they go straight away rather than telling me in court they'd go, Yeah, okay. Response that actually, he's got 19 previous convictions that all stalking and harassment. You know, we want you to be vigilant. That's the thing. I wasn't told anything. I felt sorry for the guy when it all happened because I thought, Oh, bless him, he's just got upset when actually he's a serial stalker and psycho that I have a lifetime restraining order over him, which means he cannot contact me directly or indirectly at any point. I don't do politics at all. I don't get involved with him. But there is one thing that I really, really don't believe and is this absolute rubbish where they're protecting people like murderers, stalkers, rapists that should be online for everyone to say that should be part of their punishment. Why are they being protected? I hate that. That is a really big thing that gets my back up massively. This is what this country have got wrong, and I would happily say, that's prime minister any day. You know, this is what we've got wrong. Is this how I get the whole data protection but do not protect people that have caused problems for others or they've killed or, you know, they don't deserve it? Why are we still protecting these people? Yeah. For me, it's all about raising awareness after what I've been through, because if I can go first, I mean, anyone can, because you always think it's never going to be. Thank you so much for joining us today and telling us your story, Samantha. All three of these stories were utterly terrifying. I mean, it's crazy to see what these women have had to go through, but luckily they've kind of come out stronger in the end. They don't let themselves become victims, but instead they've chosen to fight back. Absolutely, Jamie. We can learn a lot from them. Everyone should watch red flags and listen to their intuition when they encounter a situation like this, for sure. Thank you so much. Brittany Bell, Erin Brady and Samantha Mumford for sharing your stories today. If anyone out there is in need of help or is a victim of. Stalking, please reach out for help. You can find a list of resources on our Instagram app strictly stalking pot. I'm Jake Tapper Tula and I'm Jimmy Bibby. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Strictly Stalking, discussing the stalkers of beauty queens.