Don't really know what to do about this customer of mine. We've worked with her for about 2 years and had a couple of "incidents" with her before, mainly when she was drunk. But she's apologized and everything seemed OK. 

Tonight out of the blue, at around midnight, she started texting me abuse over some unimaginably trivial thing. That was the last straw, so I told her that we couldn't work with her any more. From that point, she's been texting me barely coherent abuse and thinly veiled threats. They stopped around 2am. Must be close to 150 texts. They came in groups of 5 or 6, seemingly unconnected, some of them stopping abruptly mid-sentence. The only replies I sent her were to request that she stop texting me and that any further texts would be considered criminal harassment and that I'd be contacting the police tomorrow. 

Didn't have any effect. They just kept on coming. Real gratuitous abuse. At some point, she decided without any basis whatsoever that I was harassing her, so the texts turned into "stop harassing me this is harassment OMG I will talk to my lawyer friend tomorrow and have you arrested you are through I will tear you down you will get what's coming." 

I just sat back and watched them come in without replying to any of them. Don't really know what to do about her at this point. My first instinct is to contact the police tomorrow and show them the texts. I'm also looking for an iPhone app so that I can record any calls in case she makes them, not having much luck though. On the one hand this is someone who needs help. On the other, I don't need this kind of abuse. I'm pretty stressed out at this point and know I'm not going to get much sleep tonight (sometimes I wish I still "indulged" in the herbal relaxants!). This is New York City and you just never know about some people. 5 years ago I had a client who turned out to be a multiple killer (David Garvin) who shot a bunch of people in the West Village. Really made me think....customers often ask to do a background check on me or my employees, but really, I should be doing a background check on them! 

My first instinct is to contact the police tomorrow and show them the texts


YES! For the record (official report) because you never know what she is capable of doing next. 

Yep that's exactly what I'm going to do. She just sent another string of them and it's now 2:40am. 

Take care! Hope you get it all sorted out soon. 

Yep. I'd get some sort of "official" report raised even if it doesn't go any further at this point.

I always wondered where my ex-wife had got to.

SongCraft


Take care! Hope you get it all sorted out soon. 

Thanks. Will post an update if anything comes of it. 

FastBikerBoy


Yep. I'd get some sort of "official" report raised even if it doesn't go any further at this point.

I always wondered where my ex-wife had got to.

She's probably out drinking with the ex-girlfriend of mine who stabbed me in the arm with a fork. 

Absolutely go to the police Sharke. I've had a little of what you describe (when I ran a sign company), and it's very unsettling. A customer of mine actually threatened to come and 'slit my throat' (that's the milder version) if I didn't stop asking him to pay his bill. 

Remove her from your life

Wow.