Nationwide — Sheila Lynch, a 67-year-old retired African American businesswoman, is accusing a group of white vigilante neighbors of executing a coordinated campaign of terror, sexual harassment, and criminal invasion of privacy. She says that since November, an unknown number of her Shea Station HOA neighbors have been attacking her to force her out of her home in Collierville, Tennessee, a predominantly white suburb of Memphis.
Lynch says the unidentified group of lawbreaking neighbors, which includes adult men and women as well as underage teens, bugged electrical outlets throughout her home with video and audio equipment. They also placed surveillance devices on both of her cars. She notes the neighbors are harassing her due to a revealing revenge video of her that was created and posted by total strangers in 2023 without her knowledge or consent.
“At age 64, I was bullied, sexually harassed, and stalked by a gang of strangers at an upscale fitness center in Collierville,” Lynch says. “When the two black men who stalked me at the gym were eventually expelled, they used secretly taken images of me to create an explicit revenge video featuring my face and female intimate body parts.” Since she has never seen this revenge video, Lynch observes she doesn’t know whether the body parts are hers or were lifted from another source.
“On the web, unhinged people frequently use face swapping, also known as rotoscoping or compositing, to attack public figures, celebrities, and totally innocent people,” Lynch observes. “The faces of President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, were recently depicted on the bodies of apes. Just because something sensational or revealing is posted on the Internet doesn’t make it authentic or true.”
According to Lynch, for more than five months, a large group of stalking neighbors, primarily males, has been using eavesdropping and pinhole camera technology to watch and listen to her at home twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. “Their crass comments include noting when I go to the bathroom with crude pronouncements about what I do there,” she states. “They listen to every telephone conversation and comment when I cook, bathe, shower, and work around my house. Even now, they continue to use audio surveillance and relay everything I say to their despicable stalking crew to rattle me and make me feel like an animal being observed in a cage. All this in my own home! Their disparaging comments often reference the revenge video to anger, unnerve, and shock. These thugs constantly hurl insults at me to the point where I had to start using my own telephone audio to combat their intrusive behavior,” she says.
Lynch states that one of the teens hacked her phones several times to stop her from blocking her neighbors’ profane messages. They also cloned both of her cell phones and hacked her computer so they could gather details about her schedule, finances, messages to others, and plans to remove the bugs from her home by replacing nearly 40 electrical outlets. Hacking a private citizen’s phone breaks both state and federal law.
“Even more horrifying, these self-righteous neighborhood stalkers threatened to harm my only child, who resides nearby,” Lynch says. “What manner of evil is this? You are so pious and bursting with hatred for a 67-year-old African American neighbor whom you don’t even know, that you organize and lead a group of other neighbors to attack my progeny. All because I am the victim of a monstrous crime!”
Since the revenge video began to circulate in 2023, on three occasions Lynch reached out via email to more than 80 households in her Shea Station HOA community, asking for help and offering an increasing reward with each missive. Not one of her neighbors responded, although she knew many of the men, women, and young teens had the secret link, due to their behind-the-back name-calling and taunting.
“In the past two years, several adults and teens who live nearby called me dirty names derived directly from the revenge video. They did so while I was working outside in my front and back yards,” Lynch says. “My security cameras also filmed multiple neighbors walking past my house, calling me the same dirty name from the video’s title. That’s not a coincidence. That’s proof that neighbors I don’t know are ostracizing me because of this explicit revenge video. For more than five months, these stalkers have escalated their harassment and terror campaign to criminal, out-of-bounds levels,” she adds.
“These people daily violate my civil rights, my right to privacy, and my right to enjoy the sanctuary that I call home. They intentionally trample my right to live free of sexual harassment and terror in my own home, disregarding my constitutional rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” she stresses. “On top of everything else, they were starting to plot a kidnapping or murder of my only child. Fortunately, I overheard the plot and thwarted this effort. They have turned their ire directly on me, threatening more than a half-dozen times to murder me. Cold-blooded, premeditated murder planned by a large criminal crew of people enthralled with a scintillating revenge video. What gives them the right to interfere in my life? To dare to harm. This is no more their neighborhood than mine. This odious group of entitled evildoers is intent on killing me to cover up their ongoing series of crimes.” Lynch notes that she reported the threats made against her and her child to the appropriate authorities.
“Despite ongoing pressure and harassment, I am committed to living my life as a proud, thoughtful, grateful black woman,” she states. “I will not change my self-definition or my home address due to a false narrative in a lewd revenge video. Furthermore, the abusive, criminal behavior of these neighbors turned stalkers will not ruin my life or prevent me from enjoying the safe haven that I call home,” she says with conviction.
To reclaim a sliver of her privacy, Lynch recently began showering at her local gym and sleeps in a location of her home where there are fewer bugs and more tactical advantage in case of intruders. “These neighborhood stalkers still have cameras and audio embedded in electrical outlets throughout my home; however, I am working with the authorities to uncover who these despicable people are and shut down this racist, criminal conspiracy,” Lynch explains.
“Creators of the revenge video clearly advised viewers and distributors to gaslight me in order to make the authorities think I am hallucinating or mentally unstable,” she states. “Nothing could be further from the truth. Everything I share is really happening. These stalkers simply pause their criminal behavior when any decent person is present who might serve as a reputable witness. Just because these criminals are good at hiding their abusive behavior does not mean it does not exist.”
To learn more about Lynch and her 38-year career in business and academia, follow her on LinkedIn and Instagram
For press inquiries, contact:
Sheila Lynch
sttlynch3@gmail.com
(901) 237-8574