The FIL (Steven Powell) of that missing woman (Susan Powell) in Utah was apparently taking thousands! of obscene pictures and videotapes of women and children...in their homes...with his high powered camera and lens! Sure, it's unlikely I live next to a weirdo but now I am so freaked out!
Anybody else?
I do watch people (with their cameras) when my daughter is swimming but obviously I have to keep my eye on my daughter more!
@SLM: Apparently this creep had plenty of pictures of women/children inside their home where they weren't bathing, etc and that is the reason for the "Voyeurism" charge.
@Christy: Oh for crying out loud, dear, I hear about oddballs all the time; I wish it was just this creep. I watch about 30 minutes of the news a day. Instead of giving me the pep-talk, listen to my feelings. What I was saying is that I now feel "vulnerable" even inside my own home because the story made "ME FEEL" that someone can enter my home with a camera.
@3girls: Yes, I was in my bathroom, when I was a young teen. It had uh...frosted windows. I still remember seeing a "shadow" through the glass as I was getting undressed, etc. I was home alone! I ran out of the bathroom and hid behind a sofa...and get this...instead of calling the police...I called my best friend! Apparently this was before the 911, and I never got the talk: "What to do in an emergency". The next day, I went outside to make sure I wasn't imagining it and there was a foot print on the air conditioning unit.
Come to think of it: After reading the responses, I am not a paranoid person. I actually sleep with my windows open to let the breeze in and the upstairs ones are open day/night. But I do remember this friend that becomes a "recluse" when her husband is out of town. I remember thinking, this was years ago, she told me her house is sealed up tight, that she seems overly stressed about it. I was relieved I didn't feel that way; I questioned my own ability/common sense with sleeping with my windows open on the ground floor but realized that the chance of anything happening was next-to-nil.
But this story freaked me out.
@Laurie: You said "I need to speak with someone." I AM! I am speaking with all of you. And hopefully you all don't make me feel like I am the "oddball" here. I actually process "my feelings" by talking about it.
That man is disgusting!! He said that he and his DIL had a sexual thing going on. Now I wonder about the validity of that and think he probably just had some sick fantasies about her.
I live out in the country and still want the windows closed at night when my kids go to their rooms to dress after their baths. You can call me paranoid. I prefer "cautious." :)
Sad and I agree with you. I'm easily paranoid too. I believe that creeps like that are looking for their next victims.
But who undresses or does anything else obscene in front of open windows? A person could point their camera into my windows all day long and all they would see is children playing. People are rude and gross and it's an invasion of privacy. But private things should be done in private.
Paranoid much? You hear of one oddball in Utah and you're worried about it...in Florida?
Turn off the TV and go live your life.
ETA: Well, thanks for the snarky response...except for one thing: Nobody can make you feel abnormally paranoid but YOU. It isn't the story on TV, it's how YOU processed it, "dear."
Better not let anyone in your house...they could hide cameras in your bathroom, right?
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You should feel what you feel about fear otherwise it will consume you. However once you deal with the feelings of fear you have to step to the next part and get ahead of the fear and live your life. I believe in being careful but not to the point of being unable to live in the place you have put your life. If you are concern about someone snapping pictures of you, reverse the way your windows open and have the opening up high. If you can't live your life they way you want to, participate in things like being out and about without checking for the "paparazzi" then you may wish to find a counselor not just us mamas as it may be a form of paranoid behavior. I understand you had an experience that is feeding your fears but if I listened to every news story out there and lived my life by them..daily I'd fear getting a bullet through my wall killing my kids, every mosquito bite will cause me to have west nile disease, my itchy skin last week means I have bed bugs, and that we are headed for the second great depression and we all will starve. Yes there are bad people in the world, but if you let them dictate who you are and what you do, you no longer living a life, but living in fear.
Let make this more clear. You have had trauma in your life that is still bothering you. If you do not want to pass these fears along to your child, please consider speaking with a professional that can help you. I had traumatic things happen during my childhood that affect me in many ways. I decided I had not really dealt with this and went through counseling. It was a great relief to work through the fall out from these traumatic experiences. I think it helped me be a better mom to our child, because otherwise I would hove harbored lots of fear, insecurity and doubts about my choices and how to protect our daughter.
It took me many years to admit, I needed this help. No one here is thinking you are an "oddball" you gave yourself that feeling.
If you are serious about this, you need to speak with someone. Your daughter does not need all of your stress in her life.
If we always live in fear and distrust what kind of life is that? Yes, the news seems to be full of the terrible stories, but if the news were about the basic things that go on every day it would be boring.. "Today in Florida, 99.9999% of our citizens were not murdered, kidnapped or abused."
This does not gain viewers. Do not fall for the hype. If you cannot handle the news, stay away from it.
Light is one of the things humans need for energy. We also gain certain vitamins through UV rays. This is why so many children need Vitamin D supplements, we cover them in sunscreen and do not allow them enough outs side time. We can at least allow the fresh air and natural light into their homes.
It just takes common sense.
E.:
I'm trying to think of why you would allow a story to make you feel like you need to close your windows or curtains. Especially since you are apparently in Florida and this is going on in Utah...
Stuff happens. You can't live your life in a bubble. Do you not fly in airplanes because you are afraid of terrorists? You CANNOT let this fear consume and control your life.
If people take pictures at the pool - so freaking what?! Your daughter MIGHT get in one of the shots - are you in witness protection? :)
I would just press on and live my life...if some voyeur wants to get his rocks off by sitting in a field with snakes by the golf course to look at me - so be it...
We have only one neighbor who has line of sight of our house. Also on one side is a field and another is woods. So no I'm not worried about being spied on. Fortunately we also live in an area where I know all my neighbors well. Also I own two pit bulls ( I don't want to hear how bad they are because they would never hurt my family or friends) however I know that they also wouldn't let someone sneak up on me. Also if you were staking out my house you'd probably not want to mess with the dogs. So my best advice is get a big dog. I think just about any dog will protect their family.
Nobody likes to know or feel that their privacy is being invaded. It is an uncomfortable feeling. That is the problem with news and knowledge. When you don't know something, it's usually "safer" until we become "aware" and all of a sudden life is not the same.
Try not to let it mess with your head too much. There are freaks all around us and in my opinion, the less I know about them, the happier I am. I try to do what I need to do to make me and my family safe and pray for protection. We can't live in a box and we sure can't stop living...
Close your windows when you get ready to do anything private and continue to open them to get fresh air...but now with the knowledge and awareness that a freak might be watching you and that is ok, as long as you don't give them something to take a picture of...
It is what it is. The world is pretty crazy. Close your blinds when you feel the urge.
Good Lord.
Something happened in Utah and you're freaked out in Florida?
I'm sorry.
Being afraid to open your windows over that?
I don't know. I never do anything in my house I'm worried about anyone seeing. I'm pretty boring so any creeps in my area would move on.
It is scary that a person would feel the need to take such photos, but you have to keep in mind that this is all tangled up with a woman in that man's family that has been missing.
That guy has issues, obviously.
Not all people do. Not all neighbors, not all people who walk around or have cameras at swim events.
Don't let this incident, far removed from you, make you live in fear.
Frankly, this story doesn't bring any fear to me personally. What I fear is what happened to that poor missing woman.
Just my advice. Just my opinion.
well most if not any of those people knew about it. So what can you do? live in a box? Its freaky yes, people are sick yes? and with society breaking down it will only get worse, however if you do what you can to keep your family safe, thats about it. The rest is just take or leave it. I wish our society wasnt so strict on vigilantism. If I caught anyone doing that and it was NOT a mistake, or it was not accidently I would soundly beat them with anything I laid hands on.
The media is a master at blowing things out of proportion to incite fear. The incident was in UT and you are in FL. The media won.... they got you scared now.
Are there creeps out in the world, yes, but I refuse to let any creep or news media get to me to the point that I live in fear.
If you spend your time watching everyone with a camera for fear that they are looking at you or your family, you will likely miss watching your own daughter grow up.
Please don't pass these fears and extra stresses you are going through to your daughter.
Take a breath, stop watching the news hype since you realize you are the type that gets worked up about it.
For the record, my house backs up to a wooded area, I have over 35 window in the entire house, many overlooking the beautiful back. There is not 1 drape, blind, nada on any window facing the back. If someone is that desperate to see me, they have to go through a lot of effort. My only window coverings in the rest of the house are simple wooden custom blinds and they stay open most of the time.
If you're "so freaked out" about voyeurism, then just keep the windows closed. I'd rather risk it and have the nice breeze in my house.
You can never be too careful sometimes. When you let your guard down, that's when you open yourself up vulnerability. I grew up in the ghetto of Detroit--I totally understand your fears.
I HATE windows!!! Always have and always will! My husband laughs about it, but I had some bad experiences with people outside my bedroom window growing up. I refuse to live in a house with tons of windows and the MUST have blinds or curtains on them. At night they must all be covered so noone can see in!!!
voyeurs get off on the belief that the other person, the person they are watching, and sometimes take pictures of, isnt smart enough to realize that their picture is being taken. now the smart thing to do if you realize that someone is taking pictures of you or your child, is to simply stroll over and relive them of their camera equipment, and yes you can do this perfectly legally because you did not give them express permission to take the pictures,the pictures are legally your property, not theirs. we do not allow anyone to take pictures of our child without our consent first..period.
K. h.
I think what some people may not understand is that.. everyone experiences things differently,. Sounds to me like you experienced some trauma in your past (e.g, you were being spied upon when you were a child and home alone) you were not only young but in a vulnerable state... To me, I get why you could get uncomfortable about this guy in Utah (even if he's not in your state) obviously, this story does trigger something in you... and you aren't alone. I was spied upon FREQUENTLY by foster brothers. This happened when like you, I was young and bathing...... to this day, when using a public restroom (which most of the time) I do try and avoid but when I can't, the first thing I always do is look up at the ceiling to see if there are any holes drilled or a way someone can see in.. call me paranoid (which some might) but it's a habit and I learned it from being spied on and having my personal boundaries crossed..... so yes.. I can see your point.. at the same time, if you do find it is crippling you and taking AWAY from your life in some way, then I do think talking to someone might be helpful..at least you can maybe get some validation as to whether your feelings are off base or on point ..
I wish you the best
I totally get where you are coming from. Most of the voyers do not become stalkers or violent but It's still creepy that someone could be taking pictures of you or me or your kids through uncovered windows. Instead of covering your windows completely you can get cafe curtains or half curtains to cover the bottom half of your windows. This way the sunlight can get in at the top.
I am one of those people who hates window coverings. I have an older home with windows that go almost all the way to the floor and I love them. The only time they are covered is if the sun is hitting at just the right angle to be blinding or I am getting dressed or showering. I don't run around in the nude or even my undies so if someone wants to take my picture he's gonna be really bored with them.
To me this is one of thse cases where you can't do anything to stop it from happening. If someone is taking pictures or videos with a long lens so you can't see them there is nothing to about it. You may as well live your life with joy---- it's so much better than fear.
There will always be wierdos and the media loves LOVES LOVES to use them to incite fear and get readership. Don't let them, it only lines their pockets if you know what I mean. I think you just have to live your life and be cautious but not overly worried about these things. Be aware of your surroundings but not paranoid.
I did think of something funny related to windows....Hope it's okay to lighten things up with a funny story....In college I had a roommate (dorms) who didn't understand the physics of light. Specifically that if the curtains were open and the light on people could see inside...especially when it is darker outside. We would argue and argue about this ad naseum.....One evening at dusk while the boys were playing football on the lawn below she got really exasperated and said, "NOONE CAN SEE US" She walked to the window with just her bra on and threw her arms up in the air. The guys below yelled, "woohoo (her name)" and started cat calling and laughing. I've never seen anyone drop to the floor so fast. Neither of us spoke of that incident.... well after I stopped my fit of laughter.
I have a fear of someone coming in my windows at night so I rarely open them and I always check the locks on the downstairs windows before bed. Part of my fear comes from the fact that I do foster care and some of those kids have scary parents and I worry they may come and try to take their kids. I also make sure my curtains are closed after dark because I have had a fear since I was a kid that someone could be watching because of some stories I heard as a kid about that happening. It's probably a silly fear on my part but it is there none the less and I will continue checking my locks and closing my curtains at night so I can sleep peacefully.
I don't think you are paranoid. I tend to keep my blinds somewhat closed so people can't look inside. The houses here in Florida are very close together and where I live there are so many tourists from all over the world. I don't open the windows in my house at night, the HOA controls the times the sprinklers go off and I don’t always know when that is.
I too worry about someone coming in to kidnap my daughter or something like that. I choose not to dwell on those things though.
Haven't read the responses - only your So What Happened. I don't know if people are calling you paranoid, but you're definitely not! You sleep with your windows open? A paranoid person wouldn't do that...and I don't do that. I'm not paranoid, though. ha! I prefer to think of myself as careful! When my hubby isn't home, I don't answer the door unless I know a friend is coming over. I keep the doors locked and windows closed most of the time. Then again, usually it's so hot that I can't open them. I do open them when I can.
This is the first I've heard of the guy you're talking about. That is pretty creepy! It wouldn't stop me from keeping my blinds open, but it would make me be a little more aware that people are out there and are gross and do crazy stuff like that.
