Who is Michael Arnold? Man charged for stalking NY woman from small plane for 4 years, pelting her home with tomatoes
SCHUYLERVILLE, NEW YORK: Michael Arnold, a 65-year-old man from New Hampshire who has been accused of stalking a woman in New York with his small propeller airplane since 2019 has been charged.
Arnold would allegedly fly his single-engine Cessna 180 over her Schuylerville, New York, home multiple times a week so low that the windows rattled and the roof shook.
What are the charges against Michael Arnold?
Days after his arrest, Arnold was charged on Friday, October 6, with aggravated stalking, impeding, providing false information to a police officer, and violating a restraining order.
The woman, Cassie Wilusz, said that Arnold has been “terrorizing” her and her family since 2019 by flying his single-engine Cessna 180 over her home in Schenectady, New York, three times a week at 7am.
She said that the noise and vibration of the plane were so loud that it felt like he was going to crash into her house.
"It's a nightmare. He's terrorized my family, and we've been so afraid," Cassie Wilusz, 42, told Fox News, adding "All these years he has been winning because nobody would do anything until now."
"I didn't know if he'd fly into our home. I didn't know what he was capable of," she said. "I thought, what if he shoots me."
Michael Arnold would stalk her even when Wilusz's husband battled with colen cancer
In November 2022, Arnold allegedly used his 1976 propeller plane to drop tomatoes on her and her neighbors' properties, as per a report.
She complained to the Federal Aviation Administration and New York State Police, but no one paid any heed.
During this time, her husband had been diagnosed Dave Wilusz with colen cancer.
"As Dave's cancer progressed, I just couldn't fight two battles, and I stopped calling the police because the police wouldn't do anything," she said.
"The entire time Dave was in hospice, he would just circle us three to four times a week."
He husband, who wanted to help told her, "Cassie, this isn't going to be your forever. I promise you, you and [our daughter] are going to be OK." He passed away on May 22.
The next day Arnold flew over. "It felt like he was going to come through my house and everything shook, and I'm like, I can't, I can't live like this anymore," she said.
"I ended up losing my mind and got super scared, and I wouldn't let [my daughter] out of my sight," she continued.
He was arrested altleast five times, but nothing detered him.
Why did Michael Arnold stalk Cassie Wilusz?
Wilusz owned Revolution Cafe in a small town north of New York City.
She thought Arnold was just a regular customer who came in few times a week. But then he sent her an email that shocked her.
“It was pictures of him tied up with naked women, like 20 photos, and he was telling me to open my mind,” she said.
Wilusz, who was married, replied with a polite Facebook message asking him not to send such photos and then blocked him.
But that only made him more obsessed with her. He started to fly his drone over her house, taking pictures of her backyard and car and posting them online.
He also stalked her wherever she went, sitting in his car near her driveway or hiding nearby, the reports stated.
How was Michael Arnold arrested?
Arnold's latest charges came after Vermont police caught him flying his plane from the William H Morse State Airport in Bennington, Vermont, to Wilusz’s home on September 27.
Saratoga County Sheriff's deputy Nikki Voegler handcuffed Arnold after he was tied to a Facebook account which he ued to to threaten Wilusz's daughter.
"Change your wicked ways, girl. Karma is a wonderful thing, [your daughter] will be next. You will see them all pass before you," he allegedly wrote, as per Fox News.
The report stated that police found his fake social media account which he used for leaving a post on her husband's obituary page.
"When times(sic) up, times(sic) up. We all have to live with our karma," he wrote.
He had previously posted $5,000 bond and was ordered not to go within 300 feet of his plane.
He was also served with a temporary restraining order in the summer by an FBI agent in Albany, New York, who found out that he was keeping his plane at the Bennington airport.
Arnold denied that he was flying the plane and refused to reveal who the pilot was.
As per WCAX, he said, “I might be able to, but I don’t want to throw anybody under the bus. If they don’t want to get involved, I can’t get them involved.”
Wilusz hopes this will finally end. "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 said.