Crime Snob Podcast
True Crime
Crime Snob Podcast
Ep. 16: The Watcher
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A New Jersey family’s dream home quickly became the center of a nationwide mystery after anonymous letters began arriving before they could even move in. What followed was years of fear, unsettling threats, and one of America’s most infamous unsolved mysteries.
Imagine you've just bought your dream house. Six bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, more than a century of history inside its walls. Your wife grew up only a few streets away and always dreamed of raising her children in the town where she was raised. Your three children, ages five, eight, and ten, are about to begin a new chapter of their lives. You close on the house in June 2014, you begin renovating, you start imagining birthdays, Christmas mornings, and ordinary family dinners inside the home you believe you'll grow old in. Then, just three days after closing, you check the mailbox. Inside is a plain white envelope with no return address. Written across the front are three words. The new owner. The letter begins almost politely. It welcomes you to the neighborhood. It asks whether the house called to you. Then the writer reveals they have been watching. They know you have children. They know how many. They've noticed the renovations, and they want to know whether you're planning to fill the house with what they call young blood. The letter is signed with only two words. The Watcher. I didn't know this is real. Of a horror movie. I know. I when I is a horror movie. When I read this, I'm like, are you did Netflix make this based off a true story? Oh. They did. Oh, Eloise.
unknownOh.
SPEAKER_01Um, so yeah, this this Netflix documentary or not this Netflix show, whatever, is actually based on a true story. Granted, the show is much more dramatic than the real story. Of course. But um, but yeah, this this happened to a real family in Westfield, New Jersey, beginning in the summer of 2014. Wow. This is the story of 657 Boulevard and the family who bought their dream home but were too terrified to spend even one night inside of it. Crazy. Spooky. Insane. What's up, guys? Welcome to Crime Snob Podcast, where every Monday we dive into some of the most twisted local true crime stories. My name is Sandra Coriello. And I'm Alice. And if you are a self-proclaimed crime snob like us, then you are in the right place. This is the story of The Watcher. So, guys, if you are listening to this, you might not notice anything different. But if you're watching us, then you are gonna notice that I am in our usual space, but Alice is And I'm in our our not usual space, aka my bedroom, aka my AI version of our lounge. I love it. I absolutely love it. Um but Alice wasn't feeling good this week, so we decided that we were going to virtually bring you guys a podcast this week because the show must go on.
SPEAKER_02It absolutely must. And if it has to be virtual, then virtual it must be.
SPEAKER_01Then so be it. But honestly, I don't know how many people watch versus listen. So if you guys are listening, then I don't really I think the audio should still be the same. If it's not, I'm sorry. Um, it's just because we are I was gonna say zooming it.
SPEAKER_02Can't let we can't let everybody down. We need it.
SPEAKER_01No, we can't. Which side note I will say, I just want to take a second to say that I am so grateful for everyone who is listening and for everyone who has shared and followed and liked and like commented and all the things because I don't know about you, Alice, but I feel like I of course hoped that people would listen and enjoy. But to see like this the audience that we're slowly growing week after week is kind of really cool to see, and I appreciate you guys for coming along and for being crime snobs with us and like listening to these stories. And hopefully, um one day we can grow this into a platform where we can be a voice for victims and advocates and families and all the things. But until then, I hope you guys enjoy our storytelling.
SPEAKER_02Yes, and if you do listen, I love when people say that to me in person. Like when clients come in and they're like, I listen to your podcast, that absolutely makes my day.
SPEAKER_01So 100%, a thousand percent. And then like when people will like be like, Oh my god, I listened to your episode on whatever, and then like we'll talk about it. Um, so like I love feedback too, any kind of feedback, good, bad. Like, do you hate that we're like so to the point? Do we love do you love that we're so to the point? Do you wish there was more, you know, banter back and forth, or do you like like that it's kind of straightforward? Like, I want to hear all the things, and hopefully you guys are here to grow with us. So okay, so before we begin, I did just want to throw out there a little disclaimer that today's episode includes discussions of stalking. So, full disclaimer, if that's something that's a little disturbing to you, then maybe today's not you know the episode for you. But um, I will say today's like almost like a little bit of a palette cleanse from some of like the other stories we've done. Um, not that stalking isn't obviously like disturbing, it is, but no one dies in this episode, so it's a little bit of a stray from the normal murders and kidnappings and things like that that we've been discussing. So just putting it out there, it does um discuss stalking. Derek and Maria Brodus, Brodus, I believe their names are. Derek and Maria Brodus appeared to be an ordinary, successful couple raising three young children. Derek had grown up in Maine and worked his way into a senior position at an insurance company in Manhattan. Maria had grown up in Westfield, New Jersey, a quiet, affluent commuter town roughly 30 miles outside of New York City. For Maria, returning to Westfield was a homecoming. The house the couple chose was only a few streets away from the neighborhood where she had grown up. On June 2nd, 2014, the Broduses closed on the property at 657 Boulevard for exactly $1,355,657. The house was a six-bedroom Dutch colonial built in 1905. It was large, historic, and located on one of Westfield's most desirable residential streets. The Broduses didn't move in immediately. They planned to complete renovations first, so contractors began working on the house while the family remained elsewhere. Just three days after the closing, Derek was at 657 Boulevard late one evening working on the home when before leaving, he decided to check the mailbox. That was when he found the first letter. The envelope was addressed simply to quote the new owner, and the letter began by welcoming the family to the neighborhood and asking how they had ended up at 657 Boulevard. The writer claimed the house had been watched by their family for generations. According to the letter, the writer's grandfather had watched it during the 1920s, their father had watched it during the 1960s, and now the responsibility had been passed to them. Which is really disturbing. Like, what do you mean by that? I have no idea. Watching what? Uh the house, I guess? I don't even know. The writer asked whether the Broduses understood the history of the house and what might be hidden inside its walls. Then the focus shifted to the renovations. The watcher claimed to have noticed contractors working at the property and questioned what the family was doing to the house, allegedly stating, quote, I see already that you have flooded 657 Boulevard with contractors so that they can destroy the house as it was supposed to be. Tisk, tisk, tisk. Bad move. You don't want to make 657 Boulevard unhappy. And then the writer mentioned the Brodus' children. The watcher knew that there were three of them and referred to them as Youngblood. The letter suggested that once the writer learned the children's names, they might call to them and draw them toward the house. Which as a mama bear, you don't you don't mention people's kids. That's like such a mm-mm. How many kids were there? Three? Three. Three children. So he's basically saying that he's like, oh, maybe I'll learn their names and maybe I'll call to them and draw them like to the house. Not cool. The watcher also reminded Derek that hundreds of cars passed the home every day. The writer could be inside one of those vehicles or watching from one of the many nearby windows. The message ended by welcoming the family and declaring that the party was about to begin. Derek immediately contacted the Westfield Police Department. Investigators opened a case and advised the Brodises not to discuss the letters openly around the neighborhood. One of the most frightening possibilities was that the writer lived close enough to watch the house and overhear what the family was saying. Police began interviewing neighbors and looking for anyone who might have an unusual connection to the property. But at that point, they had almost nothing to work with. No name, no return address, and no obvious reason anyone would target this family. After receiving the first letter, Derek and Maria contacted the couple who had sold them the house, John and Andrea Woods. That was when the Broduses learned something they had not been told before the closing. The Woods had lived at 657 Boulevard for approximately 23 years without experiencing anything like this. But shortly before selling the house, only days before the Broduses closed, the Woods had received their own strange letter signed by someone calling themselves The Watcher. According to the Woods, their letter was odd, but not especially threatening. After more than two peaceful decades in that house, they apparently believed it was some kind of bizarre prank and they threw the letter away. They didn't disclose the letter to the Broduses before the sale. The timing was disturbing. Whoever wrote to the Woods family appeared to know that the house was changing hands before the new owners had even moved in. Roughly two weeks after the first letter, another one arrived. This time, the writer addressed Derek and Maria directly, although their last name was misspelled. The watcher claimed to have seen the children and appeared to know details about the family's movements around the property. The letter said, The workers have been busy, and I've been watching you unload carfuls of your personal belongings. The dumpster is a nice touch. Have they found what's in the walls yet? In time they will. How creepy is that?
SPEAKER_02What would you do?
SPEAKER_01I I honestly don't know. I would be so weirded out. It seems like they're on a busy street, so it sucks that you don't even know where this is coming from, you know?
SPEAKER_00Nothing.
SPEAKER_01Um, the writer commented on the house's windows and doors, suggesting that they were able to observe what was happening inside. So it's like you don't even this could be a next door neighbor for all, you know. Like it's so insane. The letter went on to ask whether they would let their kids, which the watcher referred to again as Young Blood, play in the basement. Going on to say, quote, or are they too afraid to go down there alone? I would be very afraid if I were them. It is far away from the rest of the house. If you were upstairs, you would never hear them scream. In that same note, the watcher said that they pass by many times a day. 657 Boulevard is my job, my life, my obsession. And now you are too, Brodus family. After the second letter arrived, Derek and Maria made a difficult decision. They stopped bringing their children to what was supposed to be their dream home. But the silence didn't stop the letters. Just weeks later, a third envelope appeared in the mailbox saying, quote, Where have you gone to? the writer asked.
SPEAKER_02They were like under construction and living in their previous home.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I don't know if they were in their previous home or where they were staying, but they were under construction. They weren't living there, they were just visiting the house. And when they started to get these letters, they were so freaked out that they didn't bring the kids by anymore. And then I guess they stopped maybe coming by as often as they were. And so now this guy's like, Oh, where where are you guys at? We miss you. The house misses you. So he's lingering around long enough to know that they're not visiting anymore.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01Which is creepy. Um, with each new envelope, the possibility that this was only a random prank became harder for the family to accept. The writer knew the house was being renovated, they knew children were connected to the property, they knew enough about the family to make the letters feel personal. The Broduses installed security equipment and considered different ways to protect the property, but none of it made them comfortable enough to bring their three young children into a house that an anonymous stranger claimed to be watching, which I don't blame them, I wouldn't do that either. The family never moved in. Not for a week, not for a night, not even once. Instead, the family stayed with Maria's parents who lived nearby. At the same time, they continued paying the mortgage, the property taxes, the insurance, the renovation costs, and security expenses on a house that they were too afraid to occupy. And because the investigation was active, they initially told only a small number of people what was happening. Imagine owning a million-dollar home, but you can't safely live in it, and also being unable to fully explain to neighbors why it remains empty. The Brodus family eventually purchased another house in Westfield through a limited liability company, hoping that keeping the new address out of their own names would provide some protection. But they were stalking them. They were stalking the house, technically, but I think they're so I think they were so um like paranoid at this point that they really weren't sure. So when they bought a new house, they bought it under like an LLC just to take an extra precaution to make sure that no one knew that they were buying a new house. But I think that's how scared and paranoid that they were. Do you know if they had a mortgage on the house? They did, yeah. So they were paying, they literally had to pay a mortgage, renovations, all of these things for a home that they literally didn't even live in. Um so yeah, so they were definitely financially tied to it. Um and investigators pursued several leads. The letters had been processed through postal facilities in Kearney, New Jersey? Is that how you say it? Kearney?
SPEAKER_02I don't know. Jersey has weird names towns, to be honest.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I think I'm pronouncing it right, but um the letters had been processed through postal facilities in Kearney, New Jersey, but that didn't necessarily mean that the writer lived there. It only indicated where the envelopes had entered or moved through the postal system. A female DNA profile was reportedly recovered from at least one envelope. Investigators compared it against several possible suspects, but no match identified the watcher. Maria Brodus was also reportedly excluded as the source of that DNA, which is so crazy. It sucks that you kind of have to like they have to count you out too, even though this is happening to you, I guess just to make sure. Police looked closely at people in the immediate area, including members of a family who had lived next door for decades. One person who received particular attention was someone named Michael Longford, or I'm sorry, Michael Langford. Langford? Langford, an adult man who lived with his mother who was in her 90s, and his siblings who were well into their 60s nearby. Some residents described him as eccentric and police questioned him about the letters. Michael denied writing them and he was never charged, and investigators never produced evidence publicly establishing that he was the watcher. His siblings also denied that anyone in their family was responsible. Another person who caught investigators' attention became known as quote the gamer. According to an article written by Newsweek, one night while police were conducting surveillance outside of 657 Boulevard, they noticed a car parked in front of the house for an unusually long time. When officers approached the vehicle, they found a young woman inside. She explained that her boyfriend lived on the same street. During the conversation, she mentioned something that immediately raised investigators' eyebrows. Her boyfriend was obsessed with dark video games, and one of the games he played featured a character called The Watcher. Detectives wanted to speak with him, and he agreed to be interviewed. But he never showed up. Not once, but twice, missing both scheduled interviews. Despite the suspicious circumstances, investigators didn't have enough evidence to pursue him any further, and the lead eventually went nowhere. Other possible suspects and theories emerged, but each one eventually reached the same dead end. Suspicion without enough evidence to prove who had actually written the letters. In 2015, uh the Brodises filed a lawsuit against John and Andrea Woods, the previous owners of the home. They alleged that they should have disclosed the watcher letter they had received before the sale and accused them of fraudulently concealing information that could have affected the family's decision to buy the property.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and did anything come from that?
SPEAKER_01No? No. Okay. So no. The Woods maintained that the single letter they received did not appear to represent a serious danger, and they had lived in the house for more than 20 years without incident and said that they viewed the message as strange rather than threatening. The litigation made the story public, destroying whatever privacy the Broduses had been trying to maintain. And the Woods family also filed counterclaims, arguing that the lawsuit had damaged their reputation. A 2017 oh, I'm sorry, in 2017, a judge dismissed the remaining claims. The Brodesses were still left with the same house, the same financial burden, and no answer about who had sent the letters. The family explored another solution. They proposed tearing down 657 Boulevard and dividing the property into two separate lots, hoping that they could build or sell smaller homes and finally escape the financial burden of the house. But the plan became controversial among neighbors, some who did not want the historic home demolished or the character of the street changed. Westfield's planning board rejected the proposal because the proposed lots did not meet town's requirements. Once again, the Broduses were stuck. Eventually, they found tenants willing to rent the house, and for a while the letter stopped. But then in February 2017, almost three years after the original letters, the watcher returned. Three years? Three years that they were stuck with this house. A fourth known letter was delivered after the tenants had moved into the house, and the letter was more openly hostile. The writer appeared angry about the lawsuit, the attention surrounding the house, and the family's efforts to demolish it. The message referred to different ways the Broduses might suffer, mentioning possibilities such as illness, fire, accidents, or the deaths of loved ones. But they weren't living there, right? No, they weren't living there anymore. This was the tenants that got this letter. That received the letter, yeah. Neighbors? It it kind of makes sense that it would be a neighbor because I feel like who is going out of their way to go to a house every single day? I mean, I don't know though.
SPEAKER_02People do weird things, so Cause like I I mean I don't know what kind of community this is, but wouldn't you talk to your neighbors?
SPEAKER_01But they apparently weren't really allowed to talk to the neighbors when they got the letters. They were advised by police not to talk to their neighbors because they were just kind of like this could be anyone. So don't mention anything because they wanted to, I guess, get to the bottom of the investigation. I guess they didn't want to tip anyone off or anything, so they were advised not to speak to any of their neighbors. Okay. So I don't know. Um, so yeah, so yet even with another letter in hand, authorities still could not identify the person responsible. And what's really interesting is that this is like recent, this is 2017. So even with advanced DNA and things like that, they still couldn't, like, you can't lift a fingerprint or you know, nothing. They couldn't figure it out. Yeah. Um the tenants reportedly remained in the house despite the message, and the Broduses, meanwhile, continued trying to sell the house. As the years passed without an arrest, suspicion began turning toward Derek and Maria themselves. Some people theorize that the Brotuses had experienced buyers' remorse or realized that they couldn't afford the house and created the watcher as a way to escape the purchase. The family has consistently and forcefully denied writing the Watcher letters. There are also facts that complicate the hoax theory. The Woods confirmed receiving their own Watcher letter shortly before the Broduses closed on the property, and according to the reported timeline, the Woods family received that letter before Derek and Maria confronted them about the Watcher. The female DNA reportedly. Recovered from an envelope also did not match Maria's. Neither detail proves that the Broduses were uninvolved, but both make a simple hoax explanation way more difficult. There is, however, one part of the story that needs to be acknowledged. So in 2017, several Westfield residents who had publicly criticized the Brodus family received anonymous letters signed by quote friends of the Brodus family. Derek later admitted that he wrote those letters out of anger and frustration. He did not pretend that they came from The Watcher, and he continued to deny writing any of the threatening correspondence connected to 657 Boulevard. So I guess these theories started to come up because they were so pissed off at all their neighbors who were kind of like pointing the finger at them that they did end up writing their own anonymous letters. Um and it just it didn't help their case. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's really dumb.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like I guess like in the moment you're just pissed off or whatever, but it just Yeah, and it does sound like these things were happening kind of far apart.
SPEAKER_02And I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Like the more time that goes by, you kind of like think you're doing the right thing, and yeah, I can see just being pissed off and angry and like wanting to like, you know, everyone's like pointing the finger at you, so you want to defend yourself, but in a way that doesn't look like you're like, you know, like it's like of course you're gonna say you're innocent, so I guess that was their outlet, but it just with the anonymous letters that were getting sent to them, it just didn't make them look good, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, so still, once Derek admitted that he was capable of anonymously mailing letters to his critics, it gave skeptics another reason to question him. It does not prove that Derek created the watcher, but in an unsolved mystery, uncomfortable facts still matter. Other theories have focused on people who lived near the property. Because the watcher appeared to know when contractors were present and seemed able to observe the family. Many people assume that the writer had to live close by. But even that is not certain. Boulevard is a busy residential street. Someone could have driven past regularly, maybe worked nearby or received information through neighborhood gossip. Another theory involved a disappointed buyer who had wanted 657 Boulevard but lost the property to the Broduses. The house had attracted significant interest, and some wondered whether a person who felt cheated out of it might have tried to frighten the new owners away. That's true too. Yeah, and so it just doesn't add up. Others believe the writer could have been someone who resented wealthy newcomers or wanted to punish the family for renovating an old neighborhood house. There were also theories involving former residents, contractors, people connected to local real estate, or someone carrying out a long-running prank. But none of these theories has ever produced a publicly confirmed suspect. The letters contained enough knowledge to make the writer appear close, but never enough to reveal exactly how close. In July 2019, five years after purchasing the house, the Brodus family finally sold 657 Boulevard. According to Vanity Fair, the sale price was $959,000. They had purchased it for $1,355,657, meaning that the difference between the two sale prices alone was almost $400,000.
SPEAKER_02And it sucks because the reason why the value depreciated so much was probably because they made such a big deal about it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, once like the all the lawsuits, once they decided to sue the family that sold it to them, it just publicly put everything out there. So they kind of shot themselves in the foot with that a little bit. Um so yeah, that does not include years of mortgage payments, property taxes, renovations, legal fees, security expenses, and the cost of maintaining a home that they never even lived in. And mind you, they were paying a mortgage on another home because they bought a different house somewhere. The new owners moved into the property, and no additional watcher letters sent to them have ever been publicly confirmed, if there was any. So it doesn't seem like after they sold the house there were any letters after that. The mystery appeared to go quiet, but it was never solved. The case reached an enormous national audience after journalist Reeves Weedman Wideman published an investigation in New York magazine in 2018. The article was titled, quote, The Haunting of a Dream House. Unlike the later television adaptation, the article publicly identified Derek and Maria Brodus and provided a deeply reported examination of the letters, the investigation, and the told experience took on the family. Netflix acquired the rights to the story in the article after a competitive bidding process. Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan eventually developed it into the seven-episode series called The Watcher, starring Bobby Canaval. I don't know if I'm saying that right, um, and Naomi Watts as Dean and Nora Brannock. I am terrible with names. I'm sorry if I'm butchering all of these names.
SPEAKER_02Jennifer Coolidge was the realtor in that.
SPEAKER_01Oh, no way. You watched it?
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01I didn't see it. I have seen like TV scores.
SPEAKER_02The watcher is the neighbors.
SPEAKER_01Oh, they show you who's the watcher at the end?
SPEAKER_02Like in the end, like I it's been a while, so I don't remember the details exactly, but it and I don't think in the show they ever actually found out. I think it like showed us the viewers, and it was inferred that it was actually the entire neighborhood. I don't remember why, but like that's why it seemed like they were always watching because it was everywhere. So they really were always watching.
SPEAKER_01Um there was murder in it, someone dies, right?
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_01Oh, really?
SPEAKER_02I don't think so. I think they were just genuinely being terrorized.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I don't know why I thought that someone died.
SPEAKER_02And it was very like in the I believe in the show they were living there for a period of time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like they kind of went off script a little bit. That reminds me of have you ever watched the movie No Vacancy or Vacancy? I think it's called Vacancy, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02And there's like underground, like I wanna say that's what I have to I have to look back, but I'm I'm pretty sure. And I remember one of the big things in the show was that the watcher was so pissed that the husband installed butcher block countertops. You're joking. Oh yeah, he was like, that is so tacky.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_02He was very offended by the butcher block. I don't disagree with, but I cannot I was waiting for that to be in the letters.
SPEAKER_01No, I don't know if they actually installed butcher blocks or not. It didn't really get into it, but it does say that it was some of it was fictionalized. It also from researching, I feel like it said that someone died because I wrote here that um it said the show invented oh yes. Wait, okay, hold on. So I said um the real Rotuses never moved into 657 Boulevard while the fictional family lives inside the house in the series. Um Netflix version took an enormous creative liberty, like they changed a lot. And I said the show invented secret tunnels, dramatic neighbors, violent incidents, and murder storylines that were never actually part of the real Watcher case. But that's from just what I researched. So I don't remember I never actually watched it.
SPEAKER_02They someone was murdered in the show.
SPEAKER_01Possibly.
SPEAKER_02I don't remember. It's it's been a I watched it when it like initially came out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But it's interesting because because I knew that about the show, I wanted it to be the neighbors.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02But after hearing your story, I think it was them. I just feel like unfortunately in this day and age, like I don't even think that's that crazy. It is very unusual that it only happened for that amount of time.
SPEAKER_01It's not that crazy that what that they they had a stalker?
SPEAKER_02No, that like it was only this family being stalked, and then once they sold the house, the watcher just like forgot about them, and the previous family, like, yes, got this, but it it feels either somebody was coming for them, or I think maybe they were they were doing it themselves. I don't know why, because it does seem like they lost a ton of money in this process, but again, like there are so many people out there that like like cry wolf, and that feels like just as crazy, right? Like, why would you want to pretend to have this terrible thing happening to you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, that's the part that I that's the reason why I'm like, I don't know if it is them because why would you do that to yourself? Never move into a house. I know they said, like, oh, maybe they had buyer's remorse, but they ended up losing so much more than they gained, like they lost money, a lot of money. They lost, like, I don't know. I just feel like it's such a crazy thing to do to yourself. But again, never say never. People do really weird things.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, it's it's again like having the predisposed notion that it was the neighbors. I did want it to be them, you know.
SPEAKER_01But like, are they having like a neighborhood meeting without you? Like, let's all we're we're gonna get them the hell out of here.
SPEAKER_02Like that was and I don't remember what the vendetta against them sp I think it was literally because they were mad that they were changing it, and that they changed it, like it was already renovated at that point.
SPEAKER_00It's just so weird. Who cares that much?
SPEAKER_01I literally I could care less, like what my neighbors do. It's just it's it's so weird. So it's like so we all get together to have like these secret meetings, and we're like, how how do we how do we run them out of this neighborhood? But yeah, so while the letters, the address, and the central mystery were were real, much of what happens on screen was created for television. Um, and I think that's what makes the Watcher case so disturbing is that almost nothing actually happened, and yet everything changed. No one broke into the house, no one physically harmed the family, no attacker was caught hiding outside of a window somewhere. There were only letters, but those letters were specific enough to convince two parents that moving their children into the house would be an unacceptable risk. And how could they know the difference between an empty threat or a genuine warning? The family had money, they had attorneys, they had police involvement, they eventually had national media attention and a major Netflix production telling a version of their story, but yet none of them gave them any answers. None of it allowed them to live inside of the house that they bought, and none of it identified the person who claimed to be watching. Maybe the writer was a neighbor. Maybe it was someone who wanted the house. Maybe it was an elaborate prank that went further than anyone intended. That's totally possible too. Maybe the watcher stopped because the Brodus family finally sold the property. Or maybe the person responsible is still living somewhere near Westfield and still passing by 657 Boulevard without anyone knowing who they are. More than a decade after the first letter appeared, the watcher has still never been publicly identified. And the house is still standing to this day. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02Does anyone live in it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they sold it, and I think whoever bought it is still there. But um also fun fact, I know that um this happened in Jersey, but the Netflix show, um, from what I read was actually filmed in Rye. So the Watcher Home is a Rye home that they filmed in.
SPEAKER_02It was a really nice home.
SPEAKER_01Was it?
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah. And like the whole neighborhood was like it was it was definitely like giving Westchester for sure.
SPEAKER_01Was it? Yeah, so they um they filmed it in Rye. I guess I don't know if they scouted how they found it, but um, but yeah, that's in Rye. Also, side note, if you are watching this, my my drink looks so disgusting. It's pistachio. I think they have like pistachio butter on it.
SPEAKER_02It but um literally looks like you're eating like shit.
SPEAKER_01No, I'm like, I I I got like a glimpse of it and I'm like, that actually looks so fucking disturbing on on camera, but it's pistachio butter, it's not you know what it actually looks like?
SPEAKER_02It looks like you put iced coffee in a dirty cup that had a smoothie in it before.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I thought you were gonna say that was like had old iced coffee in it or something.
SPEAKER_02Oh no, no, no, a green smoothie, like, and then you like refilled it with your coffee.
SPEAKER_01No, I'm not that disgusting, I promise. I do love Mason pistachios, though. Pistachios are good. I'm obsessed.
SPEAKER_02All the Dubai chocolate things.
SPEAKER_01I'm obsessed. I've jumped on the bandwagon and I am obsessed. But yeah, so that's the story of the Watcher.
SPEAKER_02That's so interesting. I didn't know that that really happened.
SPEAKER_01I me neither. I like so I've never watched the this the show, obviously. Um I mentioned that, but um, I've heard about it. So when I was like looking up pieces, I was like, wow, that's so interesting. I didn't know that that this was actually inspired by a true story. I actually I'm going to go watch it now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Memphis Coolidge is I mean, she always is, but she just plays the like she's the realtor, and I don't think there would have been a better person for that role. That's I'm like insane realtor that sells these people this very sick house.
SPEAKER_01I can't wait till I'm gonna actually go binge it because what is it, seven episodes I said? Something like that. It's a quick, it's a quick watch for sure. I love it. I'm gonna go freaking watch it now. But yeah, so that's the watcher. I hope you guys enjoyed. And next week so interesting. I know, and hopefully next week we'll be reunited.
SPEAKER_02We will be reunited, we'll be back in person and not in the in the fake fit that I've created here.
SPEAKER_01I love it though. Mine is just kind of cute. It is really cute. I think I I kept my walls because they are as creepy as creepy gets.
SPEAKER_02They're perfect.
SPEAKER_01Like you and to you too. All right, guys, we will see you next week. I don't ever know how to end these, so love you guys. Thanks for listening. Thanks.