Elder stakeouts! Anyone done one / been a victim of one?

sir82

Suppose the elders get an anonymous letter or phone call, or even a brave soul tells them that they no "Brother So-and-so" is sleeping with "Sister Suzy Q". Or a believing JW has a "non-scriptural" divorce, and wants proof her ex is sleeping with someone else.

The elders' manual says the "strong circumstantial evidence, such as evidence that the accused spent all night in the house of someone of the opposite sex who is not his wife or a family member" (paraphrase) can be used as evidence in a judicial case.

To get such "strong circumstantial eveidnce", elders have been known to "stake out" a house, spending all night in a car watching a house.

In all my time as an elder, I was never involved in one of these. But I heard of other cases where others did so.

Did any ex-elder here ever have to do this? Or was anyone here on the receiving end of such a stake-out?

garybuss

been a victim of one? Oh yes! I'm not sure who was the victim though. The idiot sitting out in his car in South Dakota January weather watching my parked car all night while I walked to work just might have been more a victim than me. Served him right:-)

At first I was pissed but then I had a light-bulb moment and I realized I had the best car security in town. Lance Roberts in Yankton was the twerp who ordered the stake out and Merlin Marvin in Vermillion did the deed. They were both a couple of idiots. I doubt they had two working brain cells between them.

undercover

I was never an elder, but I know of one case where a divorced brother wanted to date a sister but the elders said he couldn't because he was still "scripturally" married due to his former wife (not a JW) not having remarried. The brother knew that she was sleeping around but couldn't prove it, so he and an elder staked her house out for a few nights until they saw a guy go in with her about 10 or 11pm and then leave the next morning. That was his proof. He was then considered "free to remarry" and was given permission to date the sister he liked.

How fucking pathetic is this story? A grown man couldn't go out on a date with a grown woman because some group of men said he couldn't. And then this grown man has to get someone to sit in front of his former wife's house to prove to them that guys visited her overnight.

Read this story and tell me this ain't no fucked up cult...

Finally-Free

Just after I left my ex my neighbours asked me about unknown vehicles that were coming often and parking near my home with the occupants just sitting there for hours on end. I called a JW and said a police report had been filed, complete with the makes, models, and license numbers of the vehicles, dates and times, and descriptions of occupants. The stakeouts stopped.

W

IreallydidwalkoutofaKH

Undercover........that experience was similar to one of mine growing up! The elders told my mom that to be "free" she needed to have our father tell of his infidelity in front of one of her children so that she could have been "free".

blondie

I know of one case where the elders actually took pictures through the window of the ex-wife of one of the elders with her boyfriend in bed........

Of course all this is assuming that sexual activity only takes place at night; what happens if someone of the opposite sex stays during the day...

ps, I loved that about telling them that the police were "staking" them out.

Also, it is amazing that elders who have no time to make shepherding calls can find the time to do this.

digderidoo

My ex wife started dating a guy, who she eventually married, we had been seperated a couple of years, but not divorced.

My mother had a bee in her bonnet about this, so she and my dad travelled 10 miles to her house at 4am on about 3 occasions. On the final occasion they saw his car there. All of this i may add was not known to me until afterwards

When she reported this to the elders, my dad who was at the time no longer going to meetings, did not want to get involved, even though he had driven there. He didn't want to appear as a witness before a judicial comittee.

They then had the cheek to ask my mother to ask me to see if i could catch the car there, even though i had faded about 3 years previous.

Apparently she said the car had broken down or something like that.

Anyway upon finding out what my mother had done and upon finding out what the elders had asked me to do, i told them all to go forth and multiply, but not quite that polite.

Paul

undercover

it is amazing that elders who have no time to make shepherding calls can find the time to do this.

A lot of elders love that cloak and dagger shit. It's tons more fun to sit in a car all night pretending to be Jim Rockford than it is to go out in service on Saturday morning.

Octarine Prince

I have helped a few friends get their proof. Even my worldly cousin asked for a little amateur PI work. Fun stuff.

In all three cases, the women were very guilty, and it was just a formality. I don't think it would have been fun if there was some doubt.

wha happened?

I knew of an elder body that had the MS's driving by a sisters house to see if her df'd daughter was there. Of course this was the same sister that needed help from time to time and the elders could never lift a finger for her.

I was never a victim of an elder stakeout but in one previous congregation I attended the elders would follow up on any accusation regardless of proof or witnesses. One elder approached me because I had confessed to a non JW who told a JW who told his elder who told the elder who was calling me. Can we say no witnesses and hearsay?

Elder stakeouts! Anyone done one / been a victim of one?

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