Police Say North Salt Lake Man Is Victim Of ‘Extreme Harassment’
Mar 23, 2019, 4:43 PM | Updated: 6:21 pm
NORTH SALT LAKE, Utah – Police say a North Salt Lake man has become a victim of harassment to the extreme.
It’s become so bad that he’s had to post a sign in his front yard warning people that come by that they’ve been scammed.
For the past eight months, Walt Gilmore says he and his family have been living a nightmare.
“We feel a bit trapped in our home because of this,” he said.
Since last August, Gilmore has multiple people, multiple times a day, delivering take-out or coming by to fix things.
“The first instances were just food deliveries to our home,” said Gilmore. “But since then we’ve had electricians, we’ve had plumbers, woodwork people.”
“Sometimes we’ll have two or three long flatbed trucks in front of our home looking for a car to tow away,” he added.
The problem is Gilmore didn’t call any of them there — not a single one.
There have been more than 500 instances of people coming to his house to provide services he didn’t request.
“Some of them were coming from Idaho, Utah County, Box Elder County, Davis County,” he said. “In January and February it got to the point where we were receiving between 15 and 20 deliveries to this home per day.”
“We quickly figured out that somebody is harassing us,” he said.
North Salt Lake Police say someone is doing this to Gilmore and his family on purpose, but it’s not a laughing matter. They say criminal charges for this type of harassment are very serious.
“This is an extreme case,” said Sgt. Mitch Gwilliam. “In my career I have not seen a case like this, and have not heard of a case like this, that’s this egregious.”
A police cruiser now sits in Gilmore’s driveway 24/7. It’s hopefully a deterrent to some of the other types of visitors who come at all hours of the night.
“They’re looking for drugs, some are prostitutes with individuals who are here to protect them,” said Gilmore. “That’s the scary part to my family and I.”
Detectives say they’re following up on leads. While Gilmore is scared for himself and his family, he’s also very aware that he’s not the only person who’s a target of this harassment.
“These are good people, good hard-working people,” he said. “They’re out a lot of time and money, but what can I tell them? Sorry, there’s nothing here.”
Gilmore’s goal in speaking out publicly about the harassment is to warn companies or people offering services online or in classifieds to be aware of anyone who is only doing business through text message and let them know there is a scammer out there who’s doing a lot of harm.
