A popular bookstore closed its doors after an alleged stalker left the owner fearing for her life in a saga with a disturbing resemblance to the Netflix series You.
Nia-Tayler Clark opened her dream business BLACKLIT, a Black-owned, community-oriented bookstore, in Farmers Branch in 2022.
However, she said running the operation became a nightmare after an anonymous man who lives in the apartment complex attached to the building began harassing her in January.
Fearing for the safety of her employees, her family, and herself, Clark reported the man to their mutual landlord, filed a police report, and even obtained a restraining order.
‘You are deliberately intimidating our employees, our guests. He stays outside and walks back and forth by our windows. “It adjusts its body to make sure we see it and know it’s there,” Clark said. CBS Texas.
Texas bookstore owner Nia-Tayler Clark (pictured) said she was forced to close her business after being harassed by a stalker.
She said the unnamed man (pictured) lives in the apartment complex attached to the building.
He trapped me behind a cash register. He didn’t let me go. Most of it is alcohol induced. It usually always comes with a cup. You can tell he’s been drinking.
clark said NBC DFW has made sexually charged comments such as: “I’m going to be here every day until you no longer have a man” and “You don’t know what you’re missing.”
In the first season of the hit Netflix series You, actor Penn Badgley plays bookstore manager and serial killer Joe Goldberg, who falls in love with aspiring writer Guinevere Beck, played by Elizabeth Lail. Clark’s experience bears an eerie resemblance to the fictional plot.
In one case, the man allegedly broke into a women-only Bible study being held at the store and was sent disturbing messages by terrified Clarks employees.
‘He started going on and on about how he had just gotten out of jail. He’s been arrested 30 times this year but he always gets out,” he texted Clark.
“He left once we turned off all the lights in the store and hunkered down together and when he got there my boyfriend was already gone and we all made it safely to the parking lot.”
Clark said even her young son began to notice and tried to defend her.
In one case, the man allegedly broke into a women-only Bible study that was being held at the store.
‘I started seeing him jump. When I started, he started carrying a baseball bat. Like, “Mom, is it him? Is it him?” That’s no way for a child,’ he said.
He made the decision to temporarily close the store and relocate his family, but hopes to return to Texas soon.
“It really felt like a dream come true and an answered prayer, and to have it taken away from me because of one man has definitely crushed my heart and a lot of other people’s hearts,” Clark said.
‘Honestly, it was a big burden, the responsibility for the safety of all these people within BLACKLIT, me, my son.
“I keep trying to remind myself that this isn’t goodbye, it’s see you later.” I’m the kind of person who likes to finish what I start.’