20 Mind-Blowing Facts You Never Knew About Stephen King
13. His House Has Crazy Security
Being Stephen King is a dangerous life. Being such a household name brings the obvious benefits of celebrity, but also its many downsides. One of which is that obsessive fans sometimes tip over into stalking or even threatening King's life there was a time, not long after 9/11, that someone left a package on his doorstep. The bomb squad came in, incinerated it, then discovered it was just a copy of It.
A funny story, but you can't blame King for being cautious. Secret Window, Secret Garden was a bit of a silly piece of short King fiction, and it made for a terrible Johnny Depp film, but it's one of his many works that was loosely based on a real-life incident. And the truth is much more scary than fiction.
On April 20, 1991, a crazed fan broke into the King family home and threatened Tabitha with a bomb, claiming King stole the idea for Misery from his aunt. Tabitha ran to a neighbour and called the police, who found the bomb was a dud, arrested the man and sentenced him to 18 months in jail. Since then they had to increase security to the point that they have CCTV everywhere and a huge wrought-iron fence enclosing the property.