Stalked By My Ex’s Crazy Ex

Stalkers you’ve heard about in the news mostly targeted actors and athletes. But the average obsessed individual selects their prey generally for the most pedestrian reasons.

In my case, I was followed — literally and figuratively — by the guy whose presence exacerbated, then ended my marriage of more than 20 years.

During 2013, my older son began studying for his bar mitzvah, slated for the following June. My then-wife accompanied him to tutoring sessions with the Rabbi. She would cross paths with Barry, a divorced dad whose daughter’s bat mitzvah was slated for a few weeks after our big event.

Barry’s younger son attended the Hebrew school a grade above our younger son. Both boys were in the same preschool, housed conveniently within our temple. This meant Barry interacted with my wife on an almost-daily basis, when he had custody of his kids.

Barry struck me as a little odd, especially as my wife relayed stories about him bragging about filling his “dating Bingo card” by going out with Asian women and other ethnic groups. She also remarked that Barry’s behavior vacillated depending on how well he self-medicated himself with prescriptions from his doctor.

Three Sundays every month, my wife would drive our older son to Hebrew school. That gave me the opportunity to stay home for one-on-one…