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Man, 56, jailed on stalking charge

A York County man is behind bars in Blair County after police say he stalked an Altoona woman he worked with in the 1990s.

Joseph G. Carey, 56, of Dallastown was arrested Saturday after a city woman called 911 about 4 p.m. to report Carey was at her back door.

According to charges filed by Altoona police, it all started in the late 1990s when Carey worked with the woman at a city bar. The woman told police in July that Carey was obsessed with her at that time and had even attacked a DJ at the bar because he thought the DJ was intentionally “playing songs which invoked some emotions in him” about the woman, Altoona police Cpl. Detective Drew Emswiler wrote in the charges.

The woman told police she started getting an unsolicited Facebook message each year from Carey between 2009 and 2011. She never responded, and the messages stopped until 2014. The messages continued through 2015 and 2016, but stopped until this year. The messages she received this year had violent undertones, police said.

In a message from May of this year, Carey spoke of mass killing in the news and how the perpetrators were often “someone who has been singled out for abuse by their peers.”

“Unfortunately, I’ve had the experience of being singled out since I was a kid, and it led to many issues with me, including thoughts of violence,” Carey stated in the message from May 2018. “Thankfully, I’ve been able to resist those thoughts and see the bigger picture before something tragic occurred, but it’s a struggle.”

The woman reported the messages to police in July because she saw someone sitting outside her home who looked like Carey. The woman said she’d received many messages in June and July and in some, Carey talked of “not giving up on her.”

Last Wednesday, the woman contacted Altoona police to report she received several more messages, so investigators contacted police in York County to ask them to get in contact with Carey, but police learned Carey was an over-the-road trucker and was not home. York County Regional Police were able to get a phone number for Carey and on Thursday, Emswiler called Carey.

“At that time, I identified myself and explained to him his messages were scaring the victim, and he should stop all communications with the victim,” Emswiler wrote in the charges.

Carey allegedly said he would stop and that he understood.

On Friday, Carey allegedly sent a message to the woman that she then reported to Altoona police.

“I know I’m not supposed to text you, but expect me home tomorrow,” the message stated, according to police.

When Carey allegedly showed up at the woman’s back door about 4 p.m. Saturday, while also calling and sending her text messages, the woman called 911, locked herself and her child inside her house and armed herself with a gun, police noted.

After Carey was taken into custody and questioned, he allegedly said he meant the woman no harm and “just wanted to settle issues between them,” according to the charges. He allegedly admitted to calling and texting her to tell her he was at her door and admitted he knew showing up there might cause a problem.

Police noted Carey also admitted the woman had never answered any of his messages.

Carey is now charged with misdemeanor counts of stalking and harassment, along with a summary charge of harassment.

Bail was set at 10 percent of $20,000 by Magisterial District Judge Andrew Blattenberger, and Carey remains in Blair County Prison.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 12 at Central Court before Magisterial District Judge Ben Jones.

Mirror Staff Writer Greg Bock is at 946-7458.

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