Two former eBay employees were sentenced in U.S. District court today for engaging in a cyberstalking campaign that included sending live spiders, pig fetuses and late-night pizzas to a Natick couple that were critical of the website.
According to the Department of Justice, Stephanie Popp, 34, of Louisville, Kentucky was sentenced to one year and one day of jail and two years of probation while Stephanie Stockwell, 28, of Redwood City, California was sentenced to two years probation for a 2019 harassment campaign against a Natick husband and wife that ran a newsletter that would report on issues of interest for eBay sellers.
According to the DOJ, eBay executives were frustrated with the newsletters’ content. The alleged harassment campaign began after communication with executives and fellow eBay employee James Baugh. Baugh was sentenced to 57 months in prison, two years of supervised release and was ordered to pay a fine of $40,000 last month.
Stockwell, at Baugh’s direction, allegedly used an anonymous email to order live spiders and prepaid debit cards to order late night pizzas to the Natick couple’s home. Other objects ordered to the victims’ home included a book on surviving the death of a spouse, a bloody pig mask, a fetal pig and a funeral wreath. Stockwell also created an eBay “Person of Interest” report —a fictitious list of potential suspects to provide to the Natick Police Department to deflect the police from suspecting that eBay employees were actually harassing the victims.
Popp sent private Twitter messages and public tweets drafted or approved by eBay executives criticizing the newsletters’ content. The messages were written as if they were from eBay users that were unhappy with the newsletters’ coverage. A sample of the messages included threats to blow up the Natick couples’ home and included their home address.
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