Brutish Affliction: Part 1 (Australia)

Some short anecdotes where I have been physically targeted by strangers – in all instances I have been by myself.

update: 2 March 2025

(April 2006)

1) Late 90’s: I was walking along Chapel street near Revolver in loose khaki pants and a singlet. The street was fairly busy but a group of guys in their car wound down the window and yelled “f__g__t” or some other homophobic abuse to my bemusement. I stuck up my finger and said “f___ you.” I drove off in my car but they followed me in their car. At a red light in High street, one of the guys jumped out of their car and I could see him approaching me (running lowly) in my passenger-side rear-view mirror. I sped off and managed to get away.

(I drove a ’96 silver Hyundai Excel for many years.)

2) Early 2000’s: At night in the Byron Bay beach carpark, I got out to play my Djembe drum and was charged-at by a guy standing about 25 meters away. I managed to get back in my car and drive away before he reached me.

3) Early 2000’s: I was swimming in a rough ocean in an empty Noosa National Park when a 40-50 year old man entered the water asking “Do you mind if I swim next to you?” By that stage I was already paddling to get out of the water. I made it to my sandals on the beach and turned around – he was walking after me. His vibes were extremely angry. Once I got out of his sight, I sprinted away.

Note the blurb of “Blood Sugar” (2022):

“When Ruby was a child growing up in Miami, she saw a boy from her school struggling against the ocean waves while his parents were preoccupied. Instead of helping him, Ruby dove under the water and held his ankle down until he drowned. She waited to feel guilty for it, but she never did.” – src

And who knows what happened to Harold Holt either?

4) Early 2000’s: Early Sunday morning in empty Brisbane streets, I was followed by two early-teen indigenous boys. I got around a few corners and ran. Later I turned around and they were around the same distance away. This happened a few times but they were closing in. I eventually found a taxi and got away.

5) Early 2000’s: I was at a Bboy night at a club in Collingwood. I was watching the dancers but also dancing in a way that distracted them and/or the audience too much – or else I just didn’t look right. As I was readying to leave, and at the door, I could see a bunch of the dancers and their crew gathering and sitting nearby watching me with glee. I walked out the door and sprinted to my car that was about 10 meters away. I started it, did a U-turn and drove off. In my rear-view mirror I could see all the guys outside looking around aimlessly. A school friend Dave later told me the main-dancer is known for causing trouble.

6) 2000s: I was walking in Surfers one night and a couple of teenage boys started following my friend and I. Once the other person left, they started jogging, maybe running toward me. I jumped on a nearby tri-cycle taxi and just said “go, go, go.”

7) 2010s: I was at a free-campsite near Port Douglas next to a highway. I woke up in the middle of the night and heard footsteps on the stones outside my vehicle. I turned on my cabin light and didn’t move. A minute or two later I stood up through the sun-roof with my torch and looked around the vehicle but didn’t see anyone. I then got into the driver’s seat and drove off. Earlier in the day an elderly man approached me who was waiting for his son and camping about 50 meters away – he was the only other camper. He was an elderly fellow originally from Poland and I had told him I was Jewish.

8) 2010s: I was camping on a family property near Port Douglas and as I was looking to leave, the gate was locked and the key was gone: the first time in many days of camping. Moments later someone from the property came in their car and had to leave as well. I followed them out, never to return.

9) 2010s: As I was swimming at “The Boulders” in Queensland, a group of guys struck up a conversation with me. They eventually left with my $100 leather thong-sandals in hand. A couple of guys from the group tailed me as I left – I think they didn’t want to get any blame if it came down to it.

10) 2020: An unhinged woman and her teen son (or friend) appeared aggressively out of nowhere at Big W South Yarra accusing me of stalking them. I walked up to the checkout (to have people standing around) and a big scene was then made by her, she was angry and hysterical. In hindsight, that could well have been an act.

[src]

Up at the counter, I asked the store manager for the police to be called as the son(?) had his hands in his tracksuit pockets, with one pocket pointing at me as if he was holding a knife within and ready to stab me. He was also giving me a deathly stare. I was escorted out by a security guard (Bruno?) who arrived at the scene after about 5 minutes waiting and into a taxi on Chapel Street.

I told Bruno:  “IF I was a stalker, which I’m NOT, why would I want to stalk her?” and we both sort of laughed it off, but he was still keen to speak to her soon about it. He also took a photo of my ID and I said “let me know if  you have a problem.”

Recalling now, I remember the son looking at me multiple times as I was walking up the street. I was slowly eating a schnitzel while putting pieces of beetroot in rubbish bins on the way to the shopping complex after leaving Schnitz.

So at some point they walked passed me and I saw their backs. I never saw the woman’s face though, only the son’s face from afar about 2 or 3 times with a mischievous grin. So when in the supermarket about 200-300 metres ahead inside the same complex, when I said “I have never seen you in my entire life” to her and the crowd of onlookers, it was true. I had never seen her face or front. I also wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings as I was more interested in the schnitzel.

Also, due to the stress of the situation I really didn’t recognise the pair at all. If the son(?) had started yelling instead, I may have recognised him although I wouldn’t have agreed that I was stalking them. He remained silent throughout and she whispered something in his ear at one point while we were up at the counter and they were standing about 6-7 metres away. She also said something like “why do you stalk vulnerable, single mums” (how ridiculous) and something else like “if you didn’t do it, why are you leaving.” In hindsight, I am of the view that they may well have wanted me to recognise them in the store in order to have me counter-accuse them of stalking myself to lead into an altercation or something else sinister.

At this point, I am of the view that they were stalking me for reasons yet known to me, although this was not done from the rear at first, but then from the front as they stayed ahead of me while stalling for time. If it would have registered that they were following me I would have jumped in a taxi as I was on foot to avoid the tram ride home. One never suspects a mother and son to do such a thing unless it were a crime family. The security guard said people do things like that in order to distract people in a store, while another party shoplifts items.

This happened in South Yarra and I’d be curious to see where she came in from that day. Also, the pair made their appearance to me in Big W – I was there to look at mobile phones as I had just bought one that day from JB Hi-Fi Prahran (1.3 km up the road) was on my way home, and wanted to check what they had.. did I miss out on something? If I didn’t walk into the store, what were her plans if I was supposedly stalking them? Why not just ask for mall security prior to that? But more disturbing, what would’ve happened if I walked into a side street as they followed me from the front within their world of make-believe and/or deception?

Wait… could it have been a hit job or some other type of targeting to give me a criminal record?

I only say this because after months of thinking about it, I may have possibly seen the pair pass ahead of me prior to entering Schnitz, and if so they were waiting for me to leave. I am not certain that this is the case, my memory is not clear, but it is possible. It was up around Oxford Street a block up the road.

I should have taken a photo of them in Big W, or would’ve the young fellow charged at me!? I asked to be escorted out because they were both so menacing. That was an act of self-defence. Also, how can you stalk someone on Chapel Street and be so certain about it as she was? Yet “stalking” can mean different things to different people.

Moreover, I was stalked, or rather hunted in Brisbane (see 3 above) also for reasons unknown to me. Maybe if I was an ice addict, I would’ve done something so idiotic as to stalk someone on Chapel Street on a busy day for no reason at all, but to satisfy some ‘stalking urge.’ Good thing I went into Big W and didn’t take the tram home as originally planned, they could’ve followed me back there too.

Interestingly, a week or two earlier I went out to my vehicle to leave in the morning, and the hazard lamps were blinking for some reason. I never switched them on in the night prior. Yet the battery wasn’t flat – they probably were switched on by someone a few hours earlier through the small air gap in the window. Weird… am I missing something? I never park with the window open at all.

Nefarious or not, I’ve heard some killers are afraid of karma so they do little things to their targets to be able to say to themselves later that their victims “could see it coming but ignored the warnings: they brought it upon themselves.” So these little intrusions are not about sowing fear, they’re about deflecting ultimate responsibility. Like a mosquito saying, “you heard my buzz, bad luck – your fault for this bite.”

11) 2020: I was walking along a footpath outside Flinders Street railway station and a man was standing there rolling a cigarette. As I was about to pass him he pushed his hands into me and he dropped his cigarette. He was angry about this and asked for money. I told him I have no money and just kept walking. He started yelling and I ignored him and kept walking. Then he started walking slowly after me. I started running – I suspected him to be an ice user at that point – there are many in Melbourne. (I was recently asked for money from a guy who ended up trying to follow me into a club after I said no.) As I was running, my yellow Austin Powers cap dropped and he must have picked it up. I turned the corner and slowed down. Some moments later I turned around and he was coming after me with a friend. At that point there were some train-station police officers I started talking to. He gave me my cap back and was told to go in the opposite direction. Perhaps I should have given him some money at that point – still not sure. Anyhow, I didn’t take any chances and then escaped along the Yarra River bike path. I don’t think the cigarette fell to the ground by accident – and you can’t tell an ice addict what to do. Maybe he (and his friends) thought I then owed him money for my cap.

12) 1997: Kicked in head when working as a busboy at a nightclub by guy dancing on a podium. It actually wasn’t a proper kick, more of a direct nudge. That night the mirror of my car was smashed outside.

13) 2019: I was on Great Keppel Island and spoke to some drunks guys (4 or 5) who took issue with me taking photos of some females in the surf (as I walked passed both groups) who they themselves were staring at as they drunk outside a pub near the beach. I had been taking ten’s of photos that day – it’s so picturesque. And I ended up almost getting into a serious altercation with one of them later that evening outside a supermarket in Yeppoon as I stumbled upon them again by chance, but managed to escape by yelling at the top of my lungs “Call the Police” so that the 3 hid behind some shelves back inside, maybe hoping I would attack them and it would be caught on film. I made my escape to my car and drove off – not from the police, but from the drunk group. I think all the guys got into a fight on the second ferry back from the island but thankfully I took the first ferry. More details include a police helicopter from earlier in the day.

src (1984) 2

14)

(updated 2 March 2025)

2021: A plastic bottle was thrown at me (it landed at my feet) while walking up Commercial Road, Prahran by a crazed man yelling “Asshole” to no-one in particular.  He then yelled something at me for crossing the road. I ran and he followed me. I went around the block and as I approached the Prahran Square car park entry to reach my car, he appeared and yelled again.

[ 1 Jun 2020 ]

I went into a supermarket and then moved across to the nearby Chapel Street JB Hi-Fi store and called the police from inside.

On the phone, after dialling 000 and providing my name, I asked to be escorted to my car, but the officer (Constable Ellis) couldn’t assist in person because I only heard the bottle and didn’t see the guy throw it, and he said I could re-attempt to reach my car and to call back if there was a further problem. They were also extremely busy. By chance, I took an alternate route into the car park about an hour or so later.

[ 1 Jun 2020 ]

At the ticket machine [ 1 above,] I stared up the walkway and I am pretty sure the crazed guy was waiting in the entry area of the car park (I didn’t want to get too close to properly check.) He was sitting in a chair [ 2 above ] staring intensely out a large window into the square [ 3 above ] – presumably waiting for me to enter to “greet” me. Where did that chair come from? It’s normally an empty space.

So I was located about 20 metres down the end of a moving walkway, and I fumbled to buy a carpark ticket because I was doing it almost lying down so that the person wouldn’t see me. I was also extremely worried and kept inserting too little money – it was about $8 and the woman behind me was starting to think I was a weirdo as she stepped back. That added embarrassment to the situation but it may have saved my life – who knows? Then, as I drove away, I ducked my head in case he saw me and also my registration number. Ellis had told me that that area was known to have problems. I’m almost certain he was on Ice, and if so, I don’t believe I overestimated the danger posed.

Yet in hindsight the story makes me think how easy it’d be to target someone by following them in a car and letting out a “crazy guy” to do all the work who was in fact only acting crazy and then ready to jump back in the car when ready. My 000 call should be on record, and footage of the incident could probably be retrieved from the car park and also JB.

“All warfare is based on deception.”

15): (published 13 Nov 2024)

2024: I am not sure if this was a glitch or an actual targeting.

On 11 Sep, after installing my SIM in a new 4G phone in the days prior, I found my phone wasn’t getting any service all of a sudden. I went to a nearby Telstra shop and found that I had no more charge left and a completely new phone number. The Telstra guy (also named Adrian) attempted to get the old number back, but couldn’t because it was locked out from us. This was a problem because not only would people be unable to reach me, but that number was needed for 2FA like with Youtube. Anyway, below is the recharge history of the SIM that failed.

The payments looked too frequent, I took the photo and later confirmed it didn’t match my Paypal records at all – so those weren’t my payments. At the shop, it was impossible to drill down into each payment for further details.

The other Adrian had difficulty believing the phone number shown on the screen wasn’t my own and part of the problem was that before entering the shop I deleted all my SMSes from my phone that would’ve helped convince him, yet I did take a screenshot of my Google 2FA number at the time.

It didn’t match my “new” number – obviously.

Adrian must’ve asked me about 4 times: “So that’s not your number?” “You’ve never had that number?” “Are you sure you’ve never seen that number?” “That number’s not familiar to you?”

We tried calling my number from his phone.. no luck.

So maybe the SIM was reassigned to another person’s account rather than some “reset number” function that was run against it and thus collected its own number and payment history from another person, whilst dropping mine.

[ the original SIM that was compromised ]

Anyway, after a few tense moments, I purchased a brand new SIM card and assigned my normal phone number back into it which had become part of the available pool.

Success. Adrian said that it was “extremely rare” for something like that to happen.

  • Was it an attack on me? State-level? AI Overlord?
  • Could this happen at Optus?
  • Is there a “reassign history,” “block number” or “change owner” function part of the backend?
  • Is Telstra compromised in some way, either by an employee or weak system security?
  • How would someone know an account was mine – could they search for my surname at Telstra or would they get my phone number from a website with 2FA first (like Youtube) and then search for it at Telstra?
  • Was someone expecting to grab my specific number that morning that I snagged back first? Was a spoofing attack being planned?
  • If someone tries to call/SMS me or vice versa, how do I know the phone is going to work?

I left feedback for Telstra in the days afterward using their automated feedback email but never received any follow-up for clarification, in fact in the subsequent weeks I received another identical one to fill out which I deleted.

I actually left a negative score (maybe it’d get some attention that way?) yet the other Adrian was actually really helpful. We solved the problem, but the problem should’ve never appeared in the first place. Adrian who was from China told me he named himself that, and it was a “wholesome name.” Thumbs up on that!

16): 2024: As embedded in 1992: Spellbound from take to mistake!, the Pierre video from Zermatt had to be reuploaded on 12 Nov 2024.

youtu.be/qw8WvrPidQU

The original version (which was slightly different) was originally uploaded around 15 June 2024 (youtube.com/VOuplIQ7g9) but was deleted at some point prior to 12 Nov 2024 unbeknownst to me.

  • Was this done by a hacker who got access to my account? State-level? AI Overlord?
  • Did the attacker also mess with my Telstra SIM at the same time? (#16)
  • Was the video deleted around 11 Sep? (#15)
  • Was it done through an “official channel” as part of an operating policy?
  • Shouldn’t have I got a message about it?
  • With my SIM card being compromised in #14 – was this vid deletion related to my entire YT channel being undesirable and hence my access to it with 2FA also being undesirable?
  • Have other videos been deleted unbeknownst to me?
  • There are 507 videos listed as of 13 Nov 2024. Can these numbers be trusted?

pics
www.carsguide.com.au/buy-a-car/all-new-and-used/all-states/all-locations/all-bodytypes/hyundai_excel/
pixabay.com/illustrations/cocaine-speed-amphetamine-pep-4051118/
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