Dennis Toeppen Arrested For Harassing Online Critics And Being Creepy As Hell

from the keep-digging,-sir dept

Mon, Jul 14th 2014 3:34pm — Timothy Geigner

In case you don't remember who Dennis Toeppen is, he's the owner of Suburban Express, a shuttle bus service in Illinois that chiefly works the university circuit for students and visitors. I actually took one of their buses over a decade ago (I think) when visiting my now-wife at the University of Illinois, which normally wouldn't be relevant to an article about a guy and company that sues their own customers, drops those suits, and then refiles against them. Except that it turns out that Toeppen not only enjoys going after his online critics, but also likes to dig up little personal details of those critics and then send them cryptic-as-hell messages.

And now, it would appear, he's been arrested for his creepy antics.

Toeppen added another chapter to his strange story when he was arrested in Champaign, Illinois on two counts of "Harassment through electronic communications," a class B misdemeanor in Illinois, according to a spokesperson for the Lake County State's Attorney's Office. By this morning, he had posted the $10,000 bond and was free awaiting arraignment, according to a spokesperson for the Champaign County Sheriff's Office where Toeppen was booked.

Between creating his own wave of public backlash and drawing the ire of Ken "Popehat" White, you might have thought that Toeppen would have learned his lesson by now. Not so, apparently, and his online antics are as strange as his harassment is creepy. It turns out Toeppen appears to go to sites like Yelp and respond to critics in rather harsh ways, and then continues editing those responses years in the future. One Yelp reviewer warned against using Suburban Express and mentioned that Toeppen had apparently Googled his/her name and responded with online article links about someone sharing that name and asking if that was the Yelpers identity. Creepy enough on its own, except then there was this follow up.

July 8. 2014
It gets even scarier...
I just got a message from him:
Hi Naama, Dennis T. sent you a message on Yelp:
Subject: RE: Your Review
"By the way, what is all that trash in your driveway on the google street view of your house? You seem a little wacko."

And now we're in the stalking and implied threat arena. The obvious but subtle suggestion by Toeppen was "I know where you live." Fortunately, someone has decided to fight back.

Apparently, this time at least one target of Toeppen’s tactics documented the situation well enough to get misdemeanor charges filed. According to Lake County Circuit Court’s database, the charges filed against Toeppen were based on incidents on September 23, 2013 and January 10, 2014.

I'd say keep it sleazy, Dennis, but we already know you will.

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Filed Under: dennis toeppen, harassment, online critics, stalking
Companies: suburban express

16 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jul 2014 @ 3:58pm

I guess Dennis [the rotten menace] got bus-ted.
¬_¬"
I'll show myself out.
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Dennis, 14 Jul 2014 @ 5:05pm

Re:
Shut your mouth A. Coward or I'll look up your address too.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jul 2014 @ 5:13pm

Obviously they have no clue of the epic anime series that is going to be made from Dennis's life: Tengen Toppen Gurren Lagann
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Thomas, 14 Jul 2014 @ 5:31pm

Re:
Hahaha you actually beat to saying that.
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Gulugawa, 14 Jul 2014 @ 6:06pm

I hope Dennis is finally held accountable for his crimes when he has to pay massive fines and see Suburban Express go out of business.
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Gulugawa, 14 Jul 2014 @ 6:08pm

I hope Dennis is finally held accountable for his crimes. He should be forced to pay large fines to compensate victims, and see Suburban Express go out of business.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jul 2014 @ 8:10pm

I am by no means defending scummy business practices, but what was the actual crime committed here?

Does the guy replying on Yelp and talking about the trash in their driveway really rise to the level of a criminal offense?
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orbitalinsertion (profile), 14 Jul 2014 @ 11:31pm

Re:
You'll have to wait to see the specifics of the charges, or whatever he pleads out on. But harassment is harassment, regardless of the medium. If they have a bad case, I suppose it will fail. And honestly, constant threats to bring suit should be actionable anyway when they are always frivolous. It causes actual harm.
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Whatever (profile), 15 Jul 2014 @ 1:21am

Essentially, it looks like doxing is somehow illegal. Better tell the 4chan kids!
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Ninja (profile), 15 Jul 2014 @ 3:56am

So he was thrown under the bus.

Ahem.
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weneedhelp (profile), 15 Jul 2014 @ 7:30am

"And now we're in the stalking and implied threat arena."
"July 8. 2014
It gets even scarier...
I just got a message from him:
Hi Naama, Dennis T. sent you a message on Yelp:
Subject: RE: Your Review
"By the way, what is all that trash in your driveway on the google street view of your house? You seem a little wacko."

Where is the implied threat? Seems like Timmah is a little thin skinned when it comes to an internet troll.

Uh oh... I just Googled Timothy Geigner and went to his Twitter page... I must be stalking him. NORMALLY you would defend this kind of action as it is clearly not stalking.
-
I get it... you only defend free speech for those you like. But when its an obvious TROLL the rules change... got it.
-
Whats next... if I search/comment on someone's comments on FB Twits and YT will that be stretched to stalking/harassment? No chance of that being abused. /s
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jul 2014 @ 6:53pm

Re:
i guess the other tim can be sued for ten mil
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Easily Amused (profile), 15 Jul 2014 @ 11:38pm

Re:
The incidents that brought the charges are not detailed in this post, don't base your bullshit on the stuff techdirt commented on.
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Easily Amused (profile), 15 Jul 2014 @ 11:39pm

Re:
If you actually READ the post, the actions that got charges filed were for different dates than the one you quoted. There is more to this story we don't have public yet.
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youneedhelp, 16 Jul 2014 @ 1:32pm

Re:
If it was some nobody saying they know where you live, I'd probably agree with you. Only it's not some nobody, it's someone with a long (strange and creepy) track record. When everything Dennis has ever done/said is on record and taken into consideration, law enforcement must assume his latest statement is possibly meant as a real threat.
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Laurina, 31 Aug 2014 @ 5:45pm

Wow, he harassed me today
I am just a mom who made a comment today and he went lunatic on me. I took photos of his comments before he changed them. Guy seems to be a sociopath. I feel a little sick knowing he does this for kick.
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