We recently heard from Ashley, whose boyfriend, Kenny, was "too good to be true." You know where this is going. Not only was he too good to be true; he was a dangerous stalker.

It started with him being jealous of the men Ashley waited on at the restaurant where she worked. If she took a little too long taking their order, he would harass her with phone calls. She tried to break up with him, but that only made him angrier, and she was afraid of what he might do to her and her children.

He escalated from threatening calls to slashing tires and breaking windows. Finally, he came after her and her kids with a knife and a tire iron. Her daughter's boyfriend hit him with a golf club and put him in the hospital. After Kenny got out of the hospital, he called Ashley and asked her to bring over a blender and make food for him because his jaw was wired shut. He was in pretty bad shape. His jaw was broken, he'd lost several teeth, and his ear had to be sewn back on. It was hard for him to talk and impossible for him to scream, but he still called Ashley constantly.

She says: "I changed my number and couldn't figure out how he was getting my new numbers. Then I remembered that his brother and his niece were both police officers right in our district. They were probably getting them right off the police reports."

Ashley got an order of protection against Kenny, but it didn't help. "He still came after us with a vengeance," she says.

Finally, Kenny was arrested, convicted and sentenced to two years in prison.

She says: "And what do you know? He started calling me collect from prison. I answered and hung up so it would show up on my telephone bill. I took the bill and showed it to the police. They told me I had broken my own order of protection by answering. It took me a while to get that straightened out."

Kenny was released from prison a year early. His sentence was reduced for good behavior. "What good behavior?" she asks. "He was writing me, telling me that his mother who was in her 80's better not die while he was in prison or I would be sorry!"

Ashley was convinced that Kenny would come after her as soon as he was released. The cops were sure he would not. Guess who was right. The minute he got out, he started calling.

She says: "First he said he just wanted to talk to me, and then it turned into 'You can run but you can't hide.' He was angry because I had put him in jail."

Ashley wrote down every number on her caller ID and the time of the calls. The police looked at the numbers. They were getting closer and closer to her house. By 8 p.m., Kenny was calling from across the street.

"The police got him because of his own stupidity," she says.

This time, Kenny was sentenced to 14 years.

Ashley says, "I'm a wreck just thinking about it."

Have you been stalked? Send your tale, along with your questions and problems to [email protected]. And check out my e-books, "Dear Cheryl: Advice from Tales from the Front" and "I'll Call You. Not."