It’s been about a month since Taylor Swift released her latest music video, but plenty of fans are still hooked on her music and still love her. Some love her too much.
One Connecticut man was determined to impress Taylor that he allegedly robbed a bank so that he could use the cash to win her over.
His mad shceme to propose to her did not work, and police took him into custody.
We’re not saying that there’s any one right way to do a proposal, but … it does help your odds of getting a “yes” if the other person knows who you are.
But that didn’t deter Bruce Rowley of Derby, Connecticut from trying to propose to Taylor Swift.
The proposal that police say that he had concocted — which we suppose was also to be his meet cute with Taylor — involved him driving 60 miles to her Rhode Island home and throwing fistfulls of money over her fence.
Rowley got the money, which authorities say totaled roughly $ 1,600, after having robbed a bank.
Specifically, Rowley is accused of robbing a Webser bank in Ansonia.
Ansonia Police spokesman Lt. Patrick Lynch explains Rowley’s bizarre motive and how is alleged crime connects to Taylor Swift.
“It seemed he wanted to propose to her.”
But alas, what would surely have otherwise been a perfect marriage proposal ran across a little hitch.
“But she wasn’t home when he went there. He said he threw some of the money over a fence to impress her.”
As it turns out, he explained it all to police after they pursued his car into Connecticut for the alleged bank robbery.
“We didn’t know about Taylor Swift until our officers picked him up from state police to drive him back to Ansonia. He began to talk all about it in the cruiser.”
When a suspect begins to talk about their crime and motive without any provocation, it’s generally known as an “excited utterance,” which is considered admissible in court.
Rowley is charged with second-degree robbery and fourth-degree larceny.
There are a number of funny elements to this story, but overall, it’s scary.
We’re talking about a stalker. There are, in general, two forms of stalking. One takes the form of a lover or an ex or acquaintance who harasses a person. This particularly manifests as an abuser tracking down his victim because he cannot allow himself to lose control.
The other type is where someone has imagined an elaborate relationship with someone, often a celebrity, so vividly that they imagine that the celebrity feels the same way about them.
They may interpret tweets or offhanded statements in interviews as coded messages for them. It may have all gotten started with what they perceived to be eye contact during a concert.
Remember when President Reagan was shot? Whatever one may feel about him and his political legacy, that was a scary event.
The man who fired the shot was not in his right mind — he believed that he was trying to impress Jodie Foster.
We’re just lucky that Rowley’s delusion did not lead him to shoot anyone.
This mad scheme to propose to her was doomed from the start by so many things.
Taylor Swift, of course, is already happily in a relationship with Joe Alwyn.
We cannot imagine that Taylor, whose net worth is reportedly somewhere in the ballpark of $ 300 million, is going to be lured by anyone with any amount of money.
(Because she’s a romantic at heart)
But we can’t imagine her even blinking at $ 1,600 that seems to be raining down over her fence like dead leaves tossed by a petty neighbor.
Also, not for nothing, folks, but Taylor is famous for owning many, many homes. We have no idea what led Rowley to believe that he’d find her in Rhode Island.
We don’t imagine that Rowley’s going to get the Kanye treatment in one of Taylor’s new songs.
Sure, she sings about major life events — romances, breakups, feuds, downfalls. But you don’t sing about stalkers.
It feeds into their delusions, and might encourage other stalkers to take similar actions. Or worse actions.
Hopefully, Rowley is undergoing a psychological evaluation and will be able to receive the help that he clearly needs.