Steven Wayne Shaffer, 49, 1024 Carribian Rd., 1651 Treasure Lake, DuBois, an inmate of the jail, is charged with stalking, harassment and disorderly conduct. After a preliminary hearing, Magisterial District Judge Patrick N. Ford sent all charges onto the Court of Common Pleas. He denied bail for Shaffer to protect the victim.
The charges stem from incidents beginning in January and continuing throughout the year. According to the affidavit of probable cause, the victim contacted police about a man who was scaring her and she was not sure what he was capable of doing. She explained he started coming into the grocery store, where she worked and talking to her at the service counter. He came a couple times a week starting in January. As time went on, he started to drop off candy and send her flowers. She told him she was not interested, asked him not to make comments, or give her anything because he was making her feel uncomfortable.
One day he asked her out on a date. She avoided speaking with him but did tell him no. He then told her personal stuff about her daughter’s life and her family. When she asked him how he knew this, he said he “googled” her name, which he got from her father’s obituary when he died in January. He was able to get into her daughter’s Facebook page, where he got information about the daughter, the victim and her brother who he also tried to contact. She told him she didn’t want him nosing into her business.
In June he tried to give her an ammunition box with a piece of jewelry in it. She didn’t accept it, telling him again that she was not interested in him and never would be interested. He got mad at her, flipped his middle finger and left.
He came back with a letter. She told him he was scaring her and she wanted to be left alone. The letter read that he was frustrated because “you don’t have any faith in me, and are so closed up around me. I care for you so much it aches and you don’t seem to want that.” It goes on to explain he was thinking about going to Colorado and did not want to go alone. He speculates that she “might like that place.” He said he was waiting for her and that she made him “tingle every time” he saw her. By Christmas he claimed he would “be able to toss you in the air and catch you.”
This letter scared the victim so much that she had her boyfriend take her to work the following Sunday. When Shaffer walked up to her, she told him again to leave her alone. He kept asking why. Her boyfriend then got involved. She and the boyfriend left the store.
After this she thought it was over, but he accessed her daughter’s Facebook by posing as the victim. He took photos of the victim from Facebook and told her he had them all over his house.
In August police contacted the victim again to see if Shaffer was still bothering her. She stated he was trying to be her friend on Facebook by using several versions of his name.