Being stalked is a horrifying thing and one that nobody should have to experience. Unfortunately, there are more victims of stalkers (including yours truly) than you would expect. US-based Lithuanian model Gustė Janušauskaitė, aka Gustejanus, shared the terrifying reality of being stalked in a 7-part series of viral TikTok videos that will have you on the edge of your seats, dear Pandas.
She showed actual camera footage of how a stalker came to her house as soon as she came back home and later watched her through the window at night. Keep in mind that this is a gated community! The clips are chilling and if that doesn’t terrify you, nothing will. What’s more, Gustė had a whole host of updates about what happened next. Scroll down to read about what happened in depth. It’s an experience that we wouldn’t wish on anyone.
Gustė shared with Bored Panda that she's been looking into self-defense classes since the incident with the stalker and plans on taking them soon. Meanwhile, she's now developed the habit of carrying gear to protect herself, just in case: "After the incident, I began carrying a pocket knife and pepper spray on me at all times just to feel a bit safer when leaving my house knowing I had something to defend myself," she told me.
What happened wasn't easy to forget. Gustė still feels uneasy ever since. "The situation was extremely difficult to deal with once it happened. I had/still have PTSD when going to sleep in my room. I would be able to hear a leaf falling to the floor outside my window because of how alert and aware my senses became since the incident," she was candid about her struggles. "There were a couple of instances where I had panic attacks thinking he came back and I would wake my mom up, but in reality, no one was there after checking our cameras."
Gustė also shared some advice for victims of stalking. She told Bored Panda loud and clear that all victims should know: "It's not your fault." According to the model, our society tends to victim-blame people, especially women. Instead, we should place the blame on the perpetrator of the crime. "Just know you’re not alone and there are precautions you can take to make yourself feel safer. This includes carrying some sort of self-defense weapon, or taking self-defense classes, as well as having cameras monitoring the outside of your home."
One of the most unsettling aspects of the entire situation was how the law was unable to step in and provide actual protection from the stalker. Gustė went into detail about how the police were unable to help. "It is extremely upsetting how police went about the situation. After calling the first time, the police told me to keep my windows, blinds, and curtains closed 24/7, once again placing the blame on me instead of going after the perpetrator. I refused to live in fear like a vampire and took matters into my own hands hence creating the booby trap," she told Bored Panda.
"The 2nd time I called police I told them that their advice had not helped whatsoever as my stalker still came back regardless if my windows/blinds/curtains were closed. They suggested to be extra vigilant when leaving my house and once again offered no support or comfort to me," the model pointed out that the officers were, once again, less than helpful. "The police could have easily recognized the pattern of my stalker coming every Sunday. The least they could do was put extra patrol around my house on Sundays. The police could’ve contacted my neighborhood and alerted others that there is a potentially dangerous stalker in the area."
Gustė put it bluntly: "The police don’t stop or prevent crime. The police arrive once the crime has already happened." She also said that many women have come forward after her she shared her videos, sharing similar stories about having received no help from law enforcement.
Here's the full first video in the series, showing what the camera caught
One morning in March of last year, model Gustė woke up to the police at her door. Her mom had called in the officers after she noticed someone sneaking around the house that night, stalking her daughter. However, according to Gustė, the police “did nothing” and told her to live with the blinds and curtains closed at all times. So she and her mom moved the camera elsewhere. That’s when they captured even more evidence that Gustė was, in fact, being stalked.
Gustė told her followers that she was very thankful that her mom took extra precautions by putting up the cameras in the first place. The cameras caught the stalker immediately. Another frightening thing was that the stalker had intimate knowledge of the model’s schedule: he knew when she got home. So Gustė set up a booby trap for her stalker, tying a rope between two trees, so that he would trip and fall and she’d hear something.
Nothing happened for a week. And then, one night, the woman got back home at 2 am and immediately went to bed, only to hear her booby trap go off just a few 5 minutes later. She shared with her followers that she started having a panic attack. Gustė’s bed is right next to her window and her stalker was standing literally right next to her.
“I’m watching him watching me 2 inches away from my effing face,” Gustė said that she was watching the man stalking her through the camera app on her phone. She immediately ran to wake up her mom. The model pointed out that the blinds and curtains were all closed, as per the police’s instructions, but that clearly didn’t stop the creep from coming up to her window.
Gustė’s mom ran to her daughter’s room, quickly opened up the curtains and blinds, and started yelling and banging on the window “like a crazy person.” The stalker then started looking for the camera that caught him and “very calmly” walked away from the house.
The model immediately called the police and they showed up. However, they advised her to keep the windows, curtains, and blinds closed at all times and to be “scared and cautious every time I leave my house.” Frankly, Gustė wasn’t thrilled with this sort of advice that essentially meant her living in constant fear.
So her mom took matters into her own hands! She walked around the neighborhood for hours, showing people the video of the stalker, asking them if they knew who he was. Unfortunately, nobody did. Gustė pointed out that when nobody listens to women, their lives are in danger. Since the incident with the stalker, the model has moved and now carries pepper spray and a pocketknife on her at all times.
Gustė added that she would do things differently now. She wouldn’t let the stalker know that she knew about him and would low-key call the police, asking them to quietly come up to the house.
Finally, she shared that she may know who her stalker is after another woman from her former neighborhood said that someone who was following her for several years looked like the man in Gustė’s video. The woman sent over Gustė’s video to her private investigator and her lawyer because, apparently, there’s been “an ongoing investigation with this guy for the past year.”
Here's how some people reacted to Gustė's chilling videos
