A South Bay girl has been stalked and harassed on her way to school. She says, the man following her was even close enough to take pictures of her as she tried to get away from him.
Maelani Burke was on her way to Hilltop Middle School in Chula Vista when she got a feeling something wasn’t right. Her gut was spot on.
“I didn’t notice it but he was actually following me. There was a guy who came up the street across from me," she said. "He started shouting things at me. He said, ‘Hey beautiful!' Then he was like, 'Damn, that a**!'"
When he got closer he asked the seventh grader if she remembered him.
The 12-year-old said she ignored the man and started walking faster, but then it got even creepier. Burke said the man started taking pictures and then videos of her. As she got closer to the school, she just ran away.
“I was traumatized," Burke said. "When I showed up to school I was crying.”
She was so scared that she said she was shaking and stuttering. And this was the second time something like this happened to her.
Her mother, Yessenia Hulsey, says she's worried about her daughter’s safety.
“Just the fact that this happened twice to her on her way to school it’s enough for me to do something about it," Hulsey said.
As a solution to the harassment, the girl’s grandfather is helping out, and now takes her to and from school.
The Chula Vista Police Department is investigating and Burke's mother said she wants all families and children to be on guard when they're walking in the neighborhood.
