Incidents must meet specific criteria to be considered stalking.
This past weekend, a woman made headlines after firefighters had to pull her out of the chimney of a home in Thousand Oaks CA. The woman, 30-year-old Genoveva Nunez-Figueroa, had apparently become stuck while trying to enter the home of a man she had dated.
Neighbors called for help around 5:45 am, after hearing a woman crying. After determining that the sound was coming from the chimney, the deputies on the scene contacted the fire department for help with the rescue. Nunez-Figueroa was stuck four feet down the chimney, so firefighters actually had to dissemble the brick exterior and the interior flue to reach her. Then, they lubricated the flue with dish soap and water and lifted her out.
After this two-hour process, Nunez-Figueroa was taken to a hospital and then to the County Jail, where she was charged with unauthorized entry into a dwelling and providing false information to an officer of the law.
The owner of the house was not home at the time, but when reached later he reported that he had met Nunez-Figueroa online. The pair had been on 6 dates, but the man had terminated the relationship after discovering Nunez-Figueroa on his roof two weeks prior to the chimney escapade.
There are many possible scenarios that can lead to one individual becoming obsessed with another. A failed relationship is certainly one of them. The person who terminated the relationship may be followed, harassed, or even threatened by the other, and the behavior may even graduate to stalking. So was Nunez-Figueroa on her way to becoming a stalker?
According to the California Penal Code, “Any person who willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly follows or willfully and maliciously harasses another person and who makes a credible threat with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear for his or her safety, or the safety of his or her immediate family is guilty of the crime of stalking…”
Harassment is defined as two or more willful acts constituting a course of conduct designed to “alarm, annoy, torment, or terrorize” a specific individual. Being up on her ex’s roof twice could qualify as the man certainly seems to have found the incidents alarming and annoying.
However, since we are not privy to any communications between the two parties, we do not know if the element of a credible threat was present. The man expressed his hope that Nunez-Figueroa would “get help” for the mental or emotional issues that got her up on his roof and therefore seems unlikely to want to explore further charges against her.
