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'I'm Watching You,' Kids Claim Stalker Writes, NYPD Says

By Trevor Kapp | October 23, 2017 8:44am | Updated on October 24, 2017 10:24am
 The siblings claimed the stalker followed them around and left a creepy note in their mailbox.
The siblings claimed the stalker followed them around and left a creepy note in their mailbox.
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DNAinfo/Anton K. Nilsson

UPDATE: The children recanted their story Monday, hours after police released information about it, and the man who they claimed stalked them is no longer a suspect, officials said.

BROOKLYN — A stalker preyed on a pair of young Brooklyn siblings over two days — asking them where they sleep, taking pictures of their house and leaving a disturbing note in their mailbox, the NYPD said.  

"Watch out. I am watching you!! Your daughter is cute," read the note from the suspect, who can be seen in police footage released Monday morning.

The suspect turned himself into police at the 69th Precinct Monday and was being grilled by detectives, NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said after the footage was released.

"We’re speaking to him now. He appears to be that person," Boyce said. "It’s really preliminary right now. We’ll go on and we’ll talk to him further and see what exactly is in his head.”

The disturbing behavior began Friday when an 8-year-old girl was walking with her friend to catch the school bus near Eastern Parkway and Brooklyn Avenue around 8:25 a.m., police said.

She spotted the man hiding between cars and following her, police said. He took off when he noticed other parents around her.

That afternoon, the girl’s 12-year-old brother was on the school bus about to be dropped off near their house when the man flagged the bus down and told the aide on board he was there to pick the boy up around 3:30 p.m., according to police.

The aide told him he wasn’t on the authorized list to pick up the child and told him to leave before he called 911, the NYPD said.

The man again fled, but around 7 p.m., he showed up on the second step of the siblings’ house and began ducking down and taking pictures of the inside of the home, according to police.

When the girl brazenly confronted him, he asked her where she sleeps in the house and with whom she lives. She refused to answer him, and he fled the location on foot heading toward Nostrand Avenue, the NYPD said.

On Saturday, the stalker approached the boy around 11:15 a.m. and asked him questions about his parents and where he sleeps. He also didn’t answer and walked into his house, with the suspect hopping into a four-door sedan and driving toward New York Avenue, the NYPD said. 

Later that day, the victims found the note in their mailbox before the family notified police.

The man was captured on surveillance video parking the sedan in front of the victims’ house before getting out and staring at the home.