“The Watcher” is back. The mysterious stalker who sent letters to a New Jersey couple a few years ago, claiming to be watching them, has sent a fourth letter after a new tenant moved into the house in February. The stalker was apparently not happy about this and seems to think that the house rightfully belongs to him.

Apparently the new letter was even creepier than the previous ones. “This letter contained specific threats and was more derogatory and sinister than any of the previous letters,” the family’s attorney Lee Levitt wrote in a brief filed earlier in March. Police are currently investigating the threats, but that’s pretty hard to do, as no one knows who the stalker is–or where he is.

In 2014, Derek and Maria Broaddus bought the six-bedroom house for $1.3 million. But then they started receiving letters. One of them said that the stalker’s family had been watching the house for generations: “My grandfather watched the house in the 1920s and my father watched in the 1960s. It is now my time… I have be (sic) put in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming.”

“The Watcher” stalker sends fourth, “more sinister” letter to New Jersey home https://t.co/IUlZIzm4HF pic.twitter.com/4I42S8yDYk

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) March 30, 2017

The stalker soon got the nickname “The Watcher.” Another letter described how the windows and doors of the house allowed him to track the family members as they moved through their house. But one of the creepiest lines must be: “Have they found what is in the walls yet? In time they will. I am pleased to know your names and the names now of the young blood you have brought to me.” As if this wasn’t horrifying enough, he followed up with: “Who has the rooms facing the street? I’ll know as soon as you move in. It will help me to know who is in which bedroom then I can plan better.”

NJ Family Getting Creepy Anonymous Letters From Mystery Stalker ‘The Watcher’ https://t.co/YajhdOiNhA

— Xoobug Feed (@xoobugFeed) March 30, 2017

The Broaddus family didn’t feel like sticking around to find out. They also have three young children, which probably made the part about the young blood especially disturbing. So instead they tried to sell the house, but obviously no one felt like moving into a home that comes with a deranged stalker. So the Broaddus couple sued the people who sold them the house, John and Andrea Woods, for not telling them about “the Watcher.’ The Woods had admitted to having received at least one letter themselves, but they still countersued the Broaddus family for defamation.

After that, Derek and Maria Broaddus tried to get a permit from the township to tear the house down and build two smaller houses on the property. But the request was denied, since two smaller houses wouldn’t fit the street’s image, according to residents and township officials, who were determined to protect the “beautiful street.” But the family filed another lawsuit in the beginning of the month, aiming to overturn that decision.

For now, the Broaddus couple is stuck with renting out their house while living somewhere else. It’s uncertain if we’ll ever find out who the actual stalker is. And now most of us want to know–what exactly did that latest letter say?

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post “The Watcher” is Still Out There, Sending Creepy Letters to New Jersey Families appeared first on Law Street.

What happens when your dream house becomes a nightmare? A couple in Westfield, New Jersey found out when they started living the plot of a horror movie after buying their so-called dream house last year.

What they want to know now is who is “the watcher” and why didn’t the previous owners mention him?

Courtesy of Giphy.

The Story

After purchasing a $1.3 million house, you might like to move into it; however, when the watcher doesn’t want you to, then you might not. Which means that $1.3 million just went down the drain.

A couple found this out the hard way when, after putting down the $1.3 million, they started getting threatening letters from someone who called himself “the watcher.” And the watcher had a lot to say.

For example, he claimed he had been watching the house for a decade and that his father watched the house before him and his grandfather before that. He claimed the former residents knew about him and that he had asked them to give him some young blood.

Creepy quotes from the letters include:

• “Do you need to fill the house with the young blood I requested? Once I know their names I will call to them and draw them to me.”
• He once “ran from room to room imagining the life with the rich occupants there.”
• “Have they found what is in the walls yet? In time they will.”
• “Who has the rooms facing the street? I’ll know as soon as you move in.”

Courtesy of Giphy.

Now, it is understandable that you might be a little freaked out if you started getting these letters because at the very best it means you are about to get one weird neighbor, and at the worst it could be a whole lot worse than that.

However, if you disclose these skeevy letters, you might have a little problem selling your house because nobody wants to buy a house being watched by a creepy weirdo. Which is the situation this couple finds themselves in now.

The previous residents did not disclose this information–even though it is alleged that they got at least one letter from the watcher a couple of weeks before they closed–and they sold the house. This couple made a big deal about it (because why wouldn’t you? I’d want some police protection, too) and now everybody knows and nobody wants to buy.

Which is why the buyers decided to sue.

The Lawsuit

The buyers decided that the sellers had a duty to disclose the watcher and that the watcher had a duty to not stalk them. Because of this, they decided to sue them both.

Here is the problem with both of the suits:

• Under New Jersey law, you have to disclose latent defects–think, the old wiring is likely to start a fire. However, there is no known requirement to report other things such as house stalkers. While there is a chance that a lawyer could somehow turn this on its head and win the case (since this is pretty unique and there is no current case law to give us a hint to the verdict), the chances are probably pretty low.
• Since nobody knows who the watcher is, it will be pretty hard to serve him papers. Though, of course, they could always deliver them to the house where the watcher seems to spend a lot of time. He will probably see them when they come if he is as good a watcher as he claims to be.

If You Know Anything …

The biggest problem in this case, of course, is that nobody seems to know who the watcher is, which makes it hard to catch him (or her, but I’ve been using him in the most gender-less way possible).

So if you live in the area and have information, don’t hesitate to tell the police. It would be nice to get this guy–or girl–off the streets.

Ashley Shaw

Ashley Shaw is an Alabama native and current New Jersey resident. A graduate of both Kennesaw State University and Thomas Goode Jones School of Law, she spends her free time reading, writing, boxing, horseback riding, playing trivia, flying helicopters, playing sports, and a whole lot else. So maybe she has too much spare time. Contact Ashley at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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5. Costa Concordia Trial, A Literal Drama

Holding true to the twists and turns of the Costa Concordia shipwreck and its aftermath, a catastrophe that left 32 dead when the massive cruise liner capsized in shallow water off the coast of Italy, the captain’s criminal trial took place in Teatro Moderno, a stage theatre in Grosetto, Italy.  Francesco Schettino was charged with manslaughter for abandoning the ship before the 4,200 passengers had evacuated. This July, family members of the victims, along with witnesses, reporters and lawyers packed into the first rows of the theatre to hear testimony.

[NBC News]

4. Alec Baldwin’s Stalker

Would that God made me a celebrity, I pray to His Grace that it be anybody else but Alec Baldwin. I mean, I’d take Lindsay Lohan over a guy so antagonized by the world, he can’t even give testimony in a court of law before someone jumps in and tries to stoke his notorious temper. Such was the case in November when the “30 Rock” star said in a Manhattan court that Genvieve Sabourin, a small-time Canadian actress, had been stalking him and his fiancee. Sabourin, who claimed she had been a lover of Baldwin’s, repeatedly yelled accusations at him during the proceedings such as, “Wow, you’re lying,” and “I can’t believe your doing that!” Baldwin eventually broke down into tears before the invective of his tormentor. But the classic Jack Donaghy we all know and love was not far from the surface, telling a photographer not shortly after leaving, “I hope you choke to death.”

[Gawker]

3. Chad Ochocinco’s Too-sportsmanlike Conduct

In one of the most poorly thought-out celebrations in recent memory, football star Chad Johnson gave his attorney a gleeful butt-tap after learning of his light sentence for violating his probation. In 2012, Johnson pleaded no contest to a domestic abuse charge of his ex-wife, Evelyn Lozada. Though met by a ripple of giggles throughout the courtroom, judge Kathleen McHugh was far from amused. “Is there something funny about this,” she asked. McHugh reversed her previous community service decision, and sentenced Johnson to 30 days in jail.

[CNN]

2. “Creepy-Ass Cracker:” Racial Epithet or Bizzarre Snackfood?

Rachel Jeantel was the last person to speak to 17-year old Trayvon Martin before he was killed in an altercation with George Zimmerman. In their phone conversation, Martin described Zimmerman, who at the time was following him through a gated Florida neighborhood, as a “creepy-ass cracker”– a fact that came to light while Jeantel was being cross-examined by Defense Attorney Don West. In a pin-drop courtroom, West asked if it was then not Martin who had introduced race as an element in the incident, and not Zimmerman. But all of this quite presumptuously rules out the possibility that Jeantel misinterpreted Martin’s meaning and there was indeed a giant, oddly-shaped Saltine roaming the streets, and Trayvon, a naturally inquisitive young man, was simply commenting on its presence.

[ABC News]

1. Blind Justice

A man who just had his eye punched out in a bar fight was further afflicted when, to the shock and horror of jurors, his new $3,000 blue eye prosthetic spilled out during testimony this February. Whether in jest or just a miscalculation of words, Judge Robert Coleman hit the nail on the head when he called it, “an unfortunate, unforeseen incident.”

[Yahoo! News]

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Jimmy Hoover

Featured image courtesy of [Rvongher via Wikipedia]

Jimmy Hoover

Jimmy Hoover is a graduate of the University of Maryland College Park and formerly an intern at Law Street Media. Contact Jimmy at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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