A Leesburg man has been arrested for allegedly stalking a woman after she reported him for watching her house and following her after work.
Joseph Ryan Price, 45, was arrested at his home, located at 1112 W. Main Street, to face charges for repeated, targeted incidents starting earlier this month.
An officer responded to a stalking call at an undisclosed residential address around 12:15 p.m. April 13, according to an arrest report from the Leesburg Police Department. He was dispatched to the call because he was the responding officer who had previously reported on April 8 regarding similar incidents.
Other officers went to the address at about 1:24 p.m. in reference to a suspicious person. The call showed a male in a red baseball hat and shorts on a kid’s scooter standing on their property. The officers could not find anyone in the area matching that description. The call was anonymous when they responded, the report said.
Upon the officer’s arrival, he met with two involved parties: the female victim and the first witness. The victim stated she had been maliciously followed and watched by Price. She had never lived with nor had a domestic relationship with him, the report said.
The victim further advised that Price was standing at the dead end of her street and watching her while she was outside. She went inside to check on her daughter, and when she exited her residence, he was still standing there. Two fully marked patrol vehicles were in the area, which caused him to leave, the report said.
Price was mutual friends with the victim, so at times they had been at the same location. He had previously shown an aggressive tone and made threats delivered by electronic communication sent to her by unknown phone numbers, or implied by a pattern of conduct, which placed the victim as the target of the threat, in reasonable fear for her safety, the report said.
The victim explained that Price had been following her for a long time, causing her to tell him not to contact her anymore. She cut all communications off and blocked him on social media as of Oct. 2023. She made it a point to ignore him, but he continued to follow her and watch her outside of her residence, the report said.
The victim provided three photos of Price outside her residence. The photos showed him in the victim’s yard and close to the house, two of which were of him looking in her windows at about 10:46 a.m. on April 6. Two photos were given of the incident on that day, April 13, wherein they showed Price watching the house on his electric scooter, the report said.
The victim also advised that on April 5, while riding her bicycle home from work, she noticed Price hiding behind a bush in Palm Plaza. She told him to leave her alone and stop following her, the report said.
On April 6, the victim was in the shower and heard a knock at the door. Price pushed her window in, and a plant on the windowsill was knocked over. She did not answer the door, but she did see a man matching Price’s description proceed to circle her house, knocking on windows and yelling profanity, the report said.
Since then, the victim had asked Price not to come around to her home and work. He had been harassing her there by hiding behind a half wall waiting for her to get off and contacting her at the residence. He showed a pattern of conduct composed of a series of acts over a period of time, however short, which evidenced a continuity of purpose to follow and cause emotional distress to the victim, the report said.
The first witness stated he was with the victim when he saw Price hiding behind the fence of her house on April 12. He could see Price looking into the backyard. Additionally, he had Price inside his shop to fix his scooter and had previously spoken with him face-to-face, the report said.
The officer later contacted the victim’s landlord who lived in the same house as her. She stated that she was at home when she noticed Price staring at the house on his scooter. She also told the officer that on April 12, she saw Price in front of the house. She stopped and took a photo before he left the area. About 10 minutes later, she witnessed him standing in the same spot, staring at the residence, the report said.
Price was ultimately arrested Friday evening and charged with simple stalking (non-domestic). He was transported to Lake County Jail and released after posting $5,000 bond.