The Neighbor from Hell | Barry Ardolf
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The abundance of advanced technology that is now commonplace in society has improved lives in many ways, making it faster and easier to communicate, research and connect. When the telephone was invented, it was said to have made the world smaller because it allowed for instant communication across long distances. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, even accurately predicted that

The day will come when the man at the telephone will be able to see the distant person to whom he is speaking. This ability to communicate over long distances may have stunted the ability and desire to get to know the people around us, such as our neighbors. Privacy issues are also a growing concern with the increasing amount of personal information available online.

The slew of personal information available online is constantly at risk of being accessed and stolen by malicious strangers who will use it to their advantage by blackmailing, stalking, threatening, or controlling a person's life. These cruel strangers may even be the people that pre-technology generations were most acquainted with. Next Door Neighbors. Part 1: The New Neighbor In August 2008,

Matt and Bethany Kostelnik moved into their dream home in a suburb in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with their two children and another baby on the way. Matt was a respected lawyer and Bethany was a successful real estate agent. Both were young and excited about their new family and new home. On the first day in their home, their four-year-old son, WK, saw a playset in the next door neighbor's yard and wandered over to climb around on it.

The next door neighbor, Barry Ardolf, was an unassuming Medtronic computer technician with no criminal background. Ardolf noticed the young boy climbing on the playset in his yard, and the 46-year-old Medtronic computer technician began running after the child in a game of chase. WK's pregnant mother was standing in the driveway when she heard Ardolf repeatedly exclaiming, "'Bet you can't touch me, bet you can't touch me, "'bet you can't touch me.'"

She looked over and noticed that her son had wandered into the neighbor's yard. Bethany called her son as she was slightly uneasy at her neighbor's behavior. At that point, Ardolf grabbed the child to carry him back home. Bethany walked to the doorway and picked up her 18-month-old son, JK, to prevent him from escaping with his brother. And while her back was turned, Bethany heard Ardolf plant a wet kiss on her son.

The noise of the kiss caused her motherly instincts to kick in as she immediately walked out of the house to reclaim her son from their creepy neighbor's arms. The pregnant mother shut and locked the door. And the following day, the little boy disclosed that Barry Ardolf had kissed him on the lips. Bethany cried and exclaimed they had just moved next door to a pedophile and wanted to move after only two days in the new house.

Her husband, Matt, went to confront the man that violated their son with a sloppy smooch. When the concerned father, who also happened to be a lawyer, confronted his neighbor, Barry Ardoff admitted to kissing their son. Matt Kostelnik was rightfully enraged and demanded that Barry Ardoff never go on his property and talk to him, his wife, or his children under any circumstances. Later, the Kostelniks reported the incident to law enforcement.

The parents were distraught at the circumstances that arose on their first day in the neighborhood as they were forced to explain to their young innocent children way too early that there are evil people in the world and to never go and bury Ardolf's yard. Unfortunately for the new family on the block, this was only the beginning as their justified reaction to the incident made Ardolf feel powerless, humiliated and victimized.

That summer, neighbors who had previously invited him to dinner shunned him. He was upset at the family next door for reporting him to the police for kissing their son. And the hurt and angered computer technician set out to exact revenge on his new neighbors.

A few months later, Barry Ardolf began his quest to destroy the careers and professional reputations of Matt and Bethany Kostelnik, to damage the Kostelniks' marriage, and to generally wreak havoc on their lives. Part two, Ardolf's revenge. After a period of peace, the Kostelniks left their cars outside overnight and woke up with slashed tires.

Matt and Bethany, upset about their tires, were unaware that these slashed tires would be the least of their worries in the upcoming months. The Kostelnik family was about to be submerged into an extended nightmare in which they would be required to fight for their jobs, reputation, marriage, and freedom. At this point in time, Ardolf had established plans to inflict a series of cyber attacks on the Kostelniks, and his preparations were well underway.

He had already started creating fake email and social media accounts that he would use to take down his neighbors. The incessant computer technician read books and manuals on hacking. He spent weeks attempting to identify and gain access to his neighbor's wireless router by launching a series of attacks on the router designed to break its encryption password. The books and manuals Ardoff read taught him to use a password-cracking software

Once he successfully implemented this software, he was able to access the Kostelnik's wifi. By hacking into his neighbor's wireless router, Ardolf was able to operate through their internet in such a way that anything he did or sent would be traced back to the Kostelnik's. So he could implement his attacks from the safety of his computer without getting caught.

After successfully hacking into the Kostelnik's internet, Ardolf had everything he needed to get back at his neighbors for shunning him and reporting him to the police. On February 22nd, 2009, Barry Ardolf began executing cyber attacks on his neighbors. Ardolf went through his neighbor's wireless router and successfully logged into a yahoo.com email account he created under Matt's name undetected.

Using this Yahoo email address, Ardolf set out to destroy the lawyer's career by sending three emails to Matt Kostelnik's coworkers at Moss and Barnett, the law firm he worked at. These emails, to all appearances, were sent by Matt, and if traced, they would link back to the Kostelnik's internet account.

Matt's administrative assistant, Brenda Murphy, received the first offensive email sent under her co-worker's name. The subject line was, "You are such a fox." And the email read, "I was thinking of you on Valentine's Day. I wouldn't mind at all if you wanted to sneak me a kiss when nobody is looking. Remember what Bill Clinton finally fessed up to? I want that from you."

The second email went to Phil Young, a shareholder at Moss & Barnett, the law firm Matt worked at. The subject line of the email was, "Hey Phil, ask Brenda if she likes me." Brenda Murphy was also Phil's legal administrative assistant. This email to the law firm's shareholder said, "Hey Phil, ask Brenda if she likes me. Likes me likes me, because I like her. What can I say? I think she's cute, Matt."

The third and final email Ardolf sent under Matt's name on February 22nd went to Dave Senger, a shareholder and chairman of the management committee at Moss & Barnett. This email was the most incriminating and damaging of the three and had the subject line, family pic from Matt. The email had two photos attached and said, check it out, new family pic. I was thinking you could appreciate these. Plausible deniability, right? Matt K.,

The first photo, which Ardolf named "Matt's Kids," depicted three nude minors, one female and two males, engaged in sexual contact. The image came from the Saban series, which was created by two individuals in Brazil who sexually abused and photographed three children over a several-year period.

This was an image of known child pornography as the children involved had previously been identified and it was confirmed that they were minors at the time the photo was taken. The second image depicted an unknown young looking female dressed in a cheerleading uniform displaying her breasts and vagina and was labeled Cher.

Shortly after Matt Kostelnik's co-workers received their inappropriate emails, the child pornography from the Saban series went up on a MySpace page under the lawyer's name. Written on the About Me section of this MySpace page was a message that said, I bet my co-worker that since I'm a lawyer and a darn great one, that I could get away with putting up porn on my site here.

I bet that all I have to do is say that there is plausible deniability since anybody could have put this on my site. Like someone hacked my page and added porn without my knowledge. This is reasonable doubt. I'm a darn good lawyer and I can get away with doing anything.

In response to the MySpace page and the emails, the management of Matt Kostelnik's law firm confronted the innocent father who denied the accusations. He told Moss and Barnett management that he had not sent the emails or made any posts on the MySpace page, explaining that he hadn't created or used either account.

Moss and Barnett law firm was skeptical of their employee and hired an outside firm to investigate after two of Matt's coworkers received emails from a female law student at William Mitchell College of Law named Mary Sill. These emails detailed an encounter with Matt Kostelnik in which he sexually assaulted her in the university's parking lot after giving a presentation. The alleged law student claimed she slapped the lawyer and ran off, yelling at him to leave her alone.

The email concluded, "I know the boys club sticks together, so I don't expect anything to happen to Mr. Kostelnik, but I'm still going to try to make it so he doesn't grope another young lady. If I see him here again, I will call the police and I will press charges. Mary Sill."

The firm that Moss and Barnett hired, Cousineau-Maguire, retained a forensic computer investigator who searched Kostelnik's router to find evidence of these violations. Instead, they discovered that an unknown device was connected to their password-protected router. The Kostelniks agreed to allow the investigator to connect a packet-capturing device to their router, which would keep record of all data that passed through their router. Part 3: A Visit from the Secret Service

- In the summer of 2009, after Matt Kostelnik evaded being wrongfully convicted for sexual assault and distribution of child pornography, US Vice President Joe Biden received a terrorist threat from [email protected]. This email also traced back to the Kostelnik's wireless router. As a result, Matt received a visit from the Secret Service.

They showed up at Moss and Barnett to interrogate the innocent lawyer about the terrorist threat emails he'd sent to Joe Biden and other important politicians from the Yahoo account that traced back to his IP address. The threatening emails were also sent to a US Senator from Minnesota, the governor of Minnesota, and other public officials throughout April and May. The subject line of the email was, "This is a terrorist threat. Take this seriously." And the body of the email included the following,

When another threatening email was sent to the Vice President and other public officials in May,

The investigator retained by the outside firm reviewed the data on the packet capture device. While sifting through the information from the time the emails were sent, the investigator found a Comcast account and a computer transmitting data containing the name Barry Ardolf. This data was given to Special Agent Robert Cameron from the FBI Cyber Criminal Task Force, who had also discovered, through a grand jury subpoena, that Ardolf had a Comcast internet service.

Agent Cameron was able to obtain a search warrant for Ardolf's residence, which was scheduled for July 21st, 2009. In early July, before the search warrant execution, Bethany received a threatening email from a woman named Liz Sharpen, stating that she knew Matt and was going to get him

In the email, the woman asserted that Bethany's husband would pay for getting her pregnant and wrote, hell, he already has three kids with you. I don't blame him for asking me to have an abortion. He goes out at night, but isn't always doing what you think he's doing. That same day, Matt also received a threatening email from nooneatnoplace.com that said, I know where you and your family live and I'm going to get back at you for suing us.

With the family's lives now being threatened and the execution of the search warrant a few weeks away, all the Kostelniks could do was wait and hope that nothing terrible happened in the meantime. Part Four: Ardolf Gets Busted When the date of the search warrant's execution finally arrived, the FBI forced their way into Barry Ardolf's house, where they found an abundance of incriminating evidence.

Numerous books and manuals on hacking were scattered throughout the house, with notes about cracking the encryption key for the Kostelnik's wireless router. Under Ardolf's bed were open pieces of the Kostelnik's mail. They also discovered several computers, which contained clear evidence of everything the Kostelnik's had been framed for.

This included passwords to the emails that appeared to belong to Mary Sill and the Kostelniks, the addresses and personal information of everyone that received threatening emails, and the child pornography images that were sent to Matt's coworker and posted on the MySpace page.

A thumb drive was found in Ardolf's bedroom, which contained plans he had in store for terrorizing the Kostelniks. On this thumb drive, there was a file labeled Bethany Kostelnik, containing Bethany's contact information, work email, the website of her employer, and a note that read,

use the above page and send bad emails from Matt to Beth's coworkers. This will kill her career. There were even drafts of the emails that Ardolf had planned to send to Bethany's employers in this file. If Ardolf had been able to continue wreaking havoc, he would have sent this email to Bethany's coworkers. It said, "I had a bit of a situation with my realtor, Bethany Kostelnik. She suggested she would satisfy my needs if I bought a house from her.

Luckily, this email was never sent, and the vengeful neighbor missed his chance to take down Bethany's career.

Ultimately, evidence of every inappropriate and threatening email sent to or from the Kostelniks was discovered in Ardolf's possession. The Kostelniks were relieved of blame, saving their careers, marriage, and freedom as they avoided a wrongful prison sentence. The execution of the search warrant also revealed another twist in the plot. The FBI discovered that the Kostelniks were not Barry Ardolf's only victims. Part 5. The Others

Before Barry Ardolf lived next to the Kostelniks in Blaine, he lived in Brooklyn Park across the street from a family known as the Karstens. Carl and Nanette Karstens had twin daughters who required personal care attendance as both girls are disabled. The personal care attendants would occasionally park in front of their neighbor, Barry Ardolf's house, despite his persistent protests.

When the Karstens refused to give the names and phone numbers of every personal care attendant that worked for them, the cars in front of Adolf's house were mysteriously vandalized on numerous occasions over the following years. The vandalism of these cars was never witnessed. Alongside the destruction of their property, the Karstens received a number of anonymous threatening letters that contained various forms of personal information, such as personal identification or financial information.

In March of 2009, the Carstens received their most threatening letter in the mail. The letter had several skull images and was written on a TurboTax return containing the Carstens' personal financial information. The message on the TurboTax form said, "I told you about a year ago that you should be very afraid. I can destroy you at will, you sorry-ass excuse for a human." Carl and Nanette reported this letter to the Brooklyn Park Police Department.

A few months later, in July, the Carstens received a phone call from an FBI agent asking if they'd authorized anyone to have their social security account numbers or other personal information. The Carstens confirmed that they had not allowed this and they decided to disclose the threatening letter they'd received in March. This call was made by an FBI agent during the search of Ardolf's house in Blaine after they found a file titled, "'Fuck Me Hard 425'

Inside this file was an abundance of highly personal and private information about Carl and Nanette Karstens and their children. This included their home address, social security account numbers, and birth dates. When the Karstens confirmed they had not authorized anyone to have their personal information, the agent submitted an affidavit for another search warrant. This warrant was approved and it authorized a search of Ardolf's computers to find evidence of other crimes against the Karstens.

In the execution of this search warrant, more evidence of crimes against the Karstens were discovered on Ardolf's computer. The FBI found a folder labeled "Hack Him Bad" on a thumb drive in Ardolf's bedroom.

This folder contained multiple text files containing the Carstens' personal identification and financial information. They also found a CD with scanned images of billing invoices the Carstens paid by personal checks and Girl Scout troop materials for the Carstens' daughters. The most incriminating evidence, however, was a threatening letter with skull images on it that was written on a TurboTax return form and was sent to the Carstens in March of 2009.

This threatening letter revealed how incredibly vindictive Barry Ardoff was, as it was sent nine months after he had moved away from the Carstens family. Part six, the case. In the summer of 2010, after the search warrants were executed and the evidence against Barry Ardoff was collected and reviewed, the vengeful neighbor was offered a plea deal

The premise of the plea deal, which Ardolf agreed to, was that he would receive a sentence that was no more than two to five years if he pleaded guilty. Once Ardolf accepted the plea deal, a hearing was set to make it official. Much to everyone's surprise, the prosecuting attorney received notice right before the plea hearing that Ardolf had fired and replaced his attorney and was going to withdraw from the plea agreement.

As a result, the indictment was left to a federal grand jury who charged the defendant with: one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer, two counts of aggravated identity theft, one count of threats to the president and successors to the presidency, one count of possession of child pornography, and one count of distribution of child pornography.

Amid the plea deal fiasco, the court had released Barry Ardoff from custody on the condition that he remove all computers and internet-enabled devices from his home at all times and abstain from using these devices.

Not even a month later, Ardolf was caught violating the conditions of his release when a laptop was found in his daughter's room. At the hearing regarding this violation, Ardolf's daughter testified that the computer was hers and that he had not informed her of the pre-trial release conditions as he was required to do. She also testified that her father had used a computer at a Borders bookstore and used one in the house several times after his release.

As such, the cyber criminal's release was revoked and he was brought back into custody until his trial. A jury trial was held in mid-December to determine if Barry Ardolf was guilty of the crimes he had been charged with by the federal grand jury. Three days into his trial, Ardolf entered pleas of guilty to all counts that he'd been charged with and admitted under oath to all the allegations in the indictment, providing a detailed factual basis for each charge.

An investigation was conducted in which the court confirmed that the vengeful neighbor's guilty pleas were knowing, voluntary, and intelligent. Nonetheless, three months after the trial concluded, defendant Barry Ardolf changed his mind about being guilty. Despite the investigation ensuring his guilty pleas were voluntary, Ardolf claimed in a handwritten memorandum that he was coerced into pleading guilty by his lawyer and requested a do-over trial.

A full briefing and hearing were held to determine if the slippery defendant could change his mind about his guilty plea. While his request was under review, Ardolf was caught coaching his children on how to testify at his trial and instructed them to write letters to help him reverse his guilty plea. He was teaching them to appeal to the judge's emotions to make them more likely to believe Ardolf's version of the events.

The court denied Barry Ardolf's motion to withdraw and the defendant was stuck with his self-inflicted guilty pleas. Ultimately, the first time offender was sentenced to 18 years in jail. Barry also maintained up until the very end that his interaction with the four-year-old Kostelnik boy, which spurred his revenge plot, was not inappropriate. Part seven, the conclusion.

Years later, Barry Ardolf is 57 years old and still in federal prison for his crimes. This vindictive neighbor is set to be released in November of 2025, at which point he may well strike again. Barry Ardolf is not the only criminal of this nature to fear though. As technology continues to grow and expand, more personal information about almost anybody can be found online.

the number of cyber criminals is growing as well. Matt and Bethany Kostelnik were lucky to have avoided being successfully framed and convicted for sexual assault or terrorist threats to the vice president and other influential politicians. Other people may well have had their lives destroyed under these circumstances. So while you enjoy the privileges and powers that technology brings,

Keep in mind the risks and downfalls to avoid having your life controlled and destroyed by someone you don't know or even by your neighbors.