I-Team: Costume-shop owner accused of cyberstalking
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Woman Accused Of Cyberstalking
A Providence business owner is accused of using a computer to harass a competitor.
NBC 10
Ann Bruno, accused of cyberstalking a competitor, wears a costume while mocking questions from the NBC 10 I-Team.
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.
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Reader Reactions
Oh Come on!! Sure What Miss Bruna Did Was Wrong (a verry bad and prolonged April Fools Joke) But this interview was just another Practical Joke pulled on Channel 10. Did Channel 10 realy have to show this interview if they knew Miss Bruna did’nt take it seriously? Laugh a Little
stalker….
Whoa! I had some dealings with this person about 20 years ago. the store was in a differnet location then, but she struck me as being VERY unstable then! So the last 20 myears have not been good to her, I suppose. In any event, maybe she neds a rest.
I saw this last night she has lost it and definitely needs some help. I would be embarrassed to work with her. She should hide her face she made an absolute fool of herself and I am not a costume person but it I ever had the need it would never be her. What a loser!
I hope she doens’t think she is getting business from this display!
Wow, this woman is really crazy. Harrassing someone and then trying to advertise her own business afterwards. I wouldn’t give her the satifaction of ever going there to buy a costume. Obviously she has a serious problem and so does her associate there in the video. I feel bad for Tracy and hope everything works out for her. That Bruno lady…..GO GET HELP!!!
Can u say “a weekend in BUTLER”!
lol
Anyone who (allegedly) spends that much time harrassing someone else has issues that need addressing by a mental health professional. Add in her behavior in this interview, and you have someone who is either trying to get the public on her side to rack up an insanity defense or someone who is ligitimately nuts. Judging by the other woman in the video, it seems to be rampant in her shop.
This woman is CRAZY!!! She belongs in Butler….
I personally know Tracy and would like to say I am sorry this happened to her. She is a great person who does not deserve this. As for the whackadoo Bruno lady, she is in serious need of a check up from the neck up.
If you haven’t already watched the full unedited version of this video…Please do so now! This woman is CRAZY! I agree with TRGNY and I would never step foot into her store…I’d rather go out in a paperbag than wear one of her costumes and give her business! PSYCHO!
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