BRECKSVILLE, Ohio (WJW) A suburban Cleveland woman, who was one of the victims terrorized by Ohio’s notorious stalker Robert Hocevar, has shared her story.
“It was scary because I was lying in bed many nights, wondering if this is the night that this escalates and he does something physical,” the longtime nurse said.
She said a relative recommended in 2022 that she hire Hocevar and his company, Elite Technology, to install a security system at her home in Brecksville, Ohio.
The decision to hire the man who called himself “Bob the alarm guy” would lead to two years of terror.
She told us it began with an uncomfortable feeling that she initially dismissed.
“When he was talking to me after it was installed, I had a moment where I felt uncomfortable because he was very close to me. I remember taking some steps backwards,” she said.
The mother of three children would later tell Brecksville police that she began receiving obscene phone calls in the middle of the night, during which the caller referred to her by name, and then came text messages with graphic images and videos.
“Not knowing who it was at all and having no clue and, you know, initially I thought it was somebody just playing a joke on me, but then as it started to get worse and worse, that’s when I decided to go to the police,” she said.
Detectives would later discover that Hocevar was using a series of burner phones and altering his voice to conceal his identity, while stalking and terrorizing at least seven women who had hired him to install camera and alarm systems.
Investigators said some of the victims were being watched by Hocevar on cameras he was able to access from his truck and home.
The Brecksville victim said perhaps the most terrifying part of her ordeal came when her burglar alarm was remotely activated by Hocevar three different times in the middle of the night.
“It was terrifying to think that it went that far, and all I had him do was install an alarm system in my home,” she said.
After two years of living in fear, the victim said she decided to take matters into her own hands by directly communicating with the stalker, in the hope it would help her identify the man.
“I would text and he would text me and he started to give more clues of who he was,” she said.
Angered that the stalker had invaded her privacy while her father was dying, the victim did her own detective work, and eventually Hocevar made a mistake in a phone call that she recorded.
“So the last call I got from him, he didn’t disguise his voice and I somewhat recognized it, but then I had a family member listen to it after I kind of figured out it was him and when she heard his voice, she said, ‘without a doubt, that’s him,’” she said.
She was watching affiliate WJW’s broadcast just after she realized Hocevar was the mysterious stalker. She learned that Hocevar had been arrested by Westlake police for stalking and harassing two of his female customers on the west side and had a long criminal history.
“I felt like, ‘how is this man in people’s homes selling alarm systems when he’s been harassing, stalking?’ He also had an attempted murder charge. I mean, it’s terrifying to think I had this man in my home,” she said.
Based on evidence gathered by police and information provided by the Brecksville nurse and six other victims, 57-year-old Hocevar pleaded guilty in June to charges that include stalking, telecommunications harassment, unauthorized use of computers and possession of criminal tools.
On July 8, he was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
“He has done this behavior over and over again. He has served time before, and none of it stuck, but now he got what he deserved,” the Brecksville victim said.
Investigators suspect that Hocevar spied on many more women, but they focused on cases where the evidence against him was overwhelming and could not be disputed.
