Crazy Cyberstalking Costume Lady
 

By Jim Taricani
Investigative Reporter
Published: April 2, 2009

CRANSTON, R.I.?A Providence business owner is accused of using a computer to harass a competitor.

Cranston police arrested Ann Bruno on Monday. It?s the first time Cranston police have used the state?s cyberstalking law.

Police said they caught Bruno in the act of allegedly cyberstalking and harassing her competitor.

Tracy Sisson owns the Absolute Fun business in Cranston.

For the past year, she?s been getting dozens of harassing phone calls a day at her business and her home.

She said she suspected the calls were being made by a woman who is a competitor of hers and with whom she?s had some professional differences in the past.

Sisson said she received 50 to 60 calls a day from different people. Fed up with harassing phone calls, losing sleep and any peace of mind, Sisson called Cranston police a few months ago.

With Sisson?s help, investigators said they caught Bruno, 59, who owns Bruna Puppets and Costumes in Cranston, in the act of cyberstalking Sisson using a computer at the Cranston Public Library.

?She was basically engaging in signing Mrs. Sisson up for inquires and questions, debt-relief programs, which later on resulted in her receiving an abundance of telephone calls at her place of business,? said Col. Stephen McGrath, chief of the Cranston police.

Bruno told the I-Team to meet her at her store on Pocassett Avenue in Providence to get her side of the story.

When the I-Team walked in, she put on a costume mask and mocked the I-Team?s questions. (Watch the entire unedited interview.)

Bruno apparently isn?t taking the crime seriously, but Sisson said she is glad Cranston police did.

?I?m still a little bit nervous because I feel that someone who would go to that extreme?go to a library three or four times a week to do something like this?and to go to so many sites and to torture me, the way that she did, because it is torture,? Sisson said.

Despite the theatrics on the part of Bruno, the I-Team tried to get her side of the story.

A co-worker later called NBC 10 and said Bruno is witty and ?a little out there.?

Bruno is charged with cyberstalking and harassing.

I-Team: Costume-shop owner accused of cyberstalking | turnto10.com