News

Stalker Hacks Linkin Park Singer's Cell Phone

A woman from Albuquerque, New Mexico has taken celebrity stalking to new high-tech heights, using her company's state-of-the-art computers to hack into Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington's mobile phone records, according to investigators.

Devon Townsend, 27, is accused of using computers at her former workplace, Sandia National Laboratories, to gain access to Bennington's Verizon Wireless mobile phone bill, obtaining a list of numbers dialed and copies of pictures taken with the phone's camera. She also allegedly accessed the email account of Bennington's wife, Talinda, and made threatening calls to her.

Because of the sensitive nature of the work at Sandia Labs, which does weapons research and testing, Townsend could face serious charges for federal-level security breaches. Her attorney, however, is trying to paint the case in more innocent terms, describing it as "the Internet version of a groupie hiding in Mick Jagger's dressing room."

A search of Townsend's Albuquerque home, however, seems to suggest that her interest in Bennington was more than that of a casual groupie. Investigators uncovered all kinds of Linkin Park memorabilia, including signed merchandise, bootlegged CDs, pictures of Townsend with Chester Bennington, and copies of emails and photographs which Townsend had apparently intercepted from the Bennington family's private correspondence.

--The ARTISTdirect Staff
11.27.06