A man was charged with threatening a young girl days after he was reportedly arrested for using a single-engine 1976 Cessna 180 prop plane to stalk her mother for over four years.
Michael Arnold allegedly flew his plane over the woman’s home in Schuylerville, New York multiple times a week, according to Fox News. His altitude was so low that windows would rattle and the roof would shake. To make matters worse, he was doing this as the woman’s husband was dying of colon cancer inside the house.
“It’s a nightmare. He’s terrorized my family, and we’ve been so afraid,” Cassie Wilusz, told Fox News. “All these years he has been winning because nobody would do anything until now.
She added that she wasn’t sure if the 65-year-old Arnold would fly into their house, because she wasn’t sure “what he was capable of of.”
Wilusz reportedly complained to both the Federal Aviation Administration and the New York State police about the issue, but she says it fell on deaf ears. That being said, Fox News reports that Arnold has been arrested at least five times in the past for his from-the-air style of stalking, but nothing has slowed him down.
Arnold denies ever having contact with Wilusz, and he told police that if he wanted to harm her he could have done so very easily, but never did, according to The Guardian, . He also said the FAA hadn’t told him that he couldn’t fly and that he flew over Schuylerville to take pictures for their Facebook community page.
Perhaps his latest arrest will change that, but it doesn’t actually have to do with the aerial stunts. Saratoga Country Sheiff’s deputy Nikki Voegler actually arrested Arnold on criminal contempt charges after he was allegedly tied to a Facebook account he used to threaten Wilusz’s young daughter.
“Change your wicked ways, girl. Karma is a wonderful thing, [your daughter] will be next,” he allegedly wrote. “You will see them all pass before you.
What the fuck, dude? To make matters even more despicable, police say Arnold used the account to post a disturbing message on her husband’s obituary page. “When times(sic) up, times(sic) up. We all have to live with our Karma,” he wrote.
The latest charges come just four days after police in Vermont arrested him for allegedly flying over Wilusz’s house in September – a violation of an order of protection. The FBI reportedly notified Benneingon police, and they were waiting for him at the airport when he landed. Arnold pleaded not guilty to a number of charges and promptly posted bail.
At this point, you’ve got to be wondering why this is all happening. Well, don’t worry. I got you, or should I say, Fox News has you (bet you never expected to read that)
The trouble started in November 2019. Wilusz runs Revolution Café in the picturesque town of 1,300 about 200 miles north of New York City. Arnold, a retired Merchant Marine, used to come into the café several times a week.
As far as she was concerned, he was just a regular customer. One day he sent her an alarming email. “It was pictures of him tied up with naked women, like 20 photos, and he was telling me to open my mind,” recalled Wilusz, who was married.
She sent him a respectful Facebook message taking exception to the graphic photos, then she blocked him.
The rejection appeared to have sparked an obsession. Arnold began flying over her home, taking photos of her backyard and car and posting them to a community Facebook page. When she headed to work, walked her dog or took her daughter to school, she’d find him sitting in his car at the end of her driveway or hiding nearby.
Some real creepy shit, right? Well, it gets worse. Eventually, an anonymous package arrived in the mail with pictures of her family with checkmarks next to their faces. Unfortunately, the post office couldn’t identify the sender. Then, in November of last year, Arnold used his plane to drop tomatoes on her and her neighbors’ properties.
The next time Arnold flew, police were waiting for him at the airport. They looked at his cell phone and found dozens of photos of both Wilusz and her family at various locations. He was arrested for stalking and given a restraining order, but that didn’t bar him from flying over her home. Please keep in mind that all of this was happening as her husband, Dave, was dying of cancer.
“As Dave’s cancer progressed, I couldn’t fight two battles, and I stopped calling the police because the police wouldn’t do anything,” she told Fox News. “The entire time Dave was in hospice, he would just circle us three or four times a week.”
Dave passed away on May 22, and Arnold flew over the house the next day. The order had lapsed the same day Dave died, and he was out in front of the house a few days later. Soon, a new protective order was issued, and this time it included a no-fly order, but that didn’t stop him. Instead of taking off from the airport in Saratoga Country, he started taking off in Maine and Vermont before he was arrested again. Wilusz said that she hopes this latest arrest will finally put this whole horrible situation to bed.
The Guardian reports that Arnold is required to stop flying any aircraft under the protection order. It remains in effect until a court date on November 30.
“I just want [my daughter] to see justice because she shouldn’t have to see in 2023 a man do this to a woman and nobody listen,” she told Fox News.