Mitchell Taebel tried to break into the singer-songwriter's home in Nashville. They put him on a blacklist and he lost his mind when he received a restraining order
It's a fact that Taylor Swift has one of the most passionate fans in the entire music industry. Last May, 20,000 fans who couldn't get tickets to Taylor's show at Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field flocked to listen to the singer-songwriter from around the stadium. In Argentina, several girls are already camping outside the River Plate stadium to see Taylor Swift as close as possible, five months before her show!
However, this love for Swift's work has not always been reflected in a positive light, as in early June a man named Mitchell Taebel was charged with stalking, invasion of privacy, intimidation, and bullying towards Taylor Swift.
Tarbell began sending disturbing messages to Taylor Swift through her official Instagram account in March. One of these caught the attention of authorities as it was an audio note where Taebel claimed that she "would happily carry a bomb if she couldn't be with her soul mate."
The threatening messages were not only directed at Taylor but also at people very close to her such as her father, her security team, and her dancers. The harassment continued for two months and got to the point that Taebel took a flight from Long Beach, Indiana to Nashville, the city where Swift's home is located.
Taebel arrived at Taylor Swift's house on May 5, posing as a journalist asking Swift's workers to tell him that he was single. He was immediately escorted out of the residence and to Nissan Stadium where Swift was to give a concert later that night.
After being kicked out of the residence, the fan was added to a list of security concerns/threats, so he was unable to purchase concert tickets directly, however, he was able to obtain tickets through third parties. Luckily for Swift and her, almost 70,000 fans of hers at the Nissan Stadium, Taebel was recognized by the property's security team and was denied access.
Based on these actions, on May 11, a temporary restraining order was issued to Mitchell Taebel requested by the legal advisor of 13 management, Taylor Swift's management company.
On May 13, Mitchell was notified, but as expected, the messages towards Taylor continued and even a video where he assured that his last wish is that anyone who had anything to do with him and his family not meet a "soulmate".
Finally, on June 2, he was arrested in LaPorte County, Indiana, and held on $15,000 bail. Taebel has pleaded not guilty to all charges and having been deemed "competent" to stand trial, the Taylor Swift fan will have his next court visit on July 27, 2023.
This is not the first time that a fan has become a potential danger to her favorite artist.
One of the most notorious cases was that of Ricardo López, a man from Uruguay whose obsession with the singer Björk led him to build a book bomb loaded with acid and sulfuric acid, this was a result of the disappointment that López's relationship with the Icelandic singer-songwriter with rapper Goldie in 1996.
The construction of this book was recorded on video as part of Ricardo López's diary, and throughout the tapes that accounted for more than 18 hours of material, the mental deterioration of the Uruguayan was shown. On September 12, 1996, Ricardo ended up taking his own life in front of his camera while Björk's I Remember You was playing in the background.
