Ivanka Trump's Stalker Arrested Blocks From Trump Tower

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A longtime stalker of Ivanka Trump — who was arrested for stalking in 2010 and pleaded guilty to violating a restraining order in 2012 — was arrested at a hotel just blocks from Trump Tower, according to the New York Post.

Justin Massler, 34, was apprehended by Secret Service agents Nov. 29 at the Salisbury Hotel on West 57th Street near Sixth Avenue, a law enforcement source told the Post. (Patch reached out to the Secret Service to confirm Monday morning, but did not immediately hear back.)

Massler, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, was apparently staying at the hotel after fleeing a Nevada mental health facility, the Post reported. Massler was reported missing on Nov. 24 after he fled family members en route to Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services in Sparks, Nevada, the Reno Gazette Journal reported.

Massler has allegdly been stalking Ivanka Trump since 2010, when he was charged with stalking and harassment, New York Magazine reported. In 2011 President-elect Donald Trump's eldest daughter took out a restraining order against Massler, which the stalker violated in 2012, according to the report.

Massler's 2010 arrest stemmed from a number of stalking incidents, including threatening to kill himself in an Ivanka Trump jewelry store on Madison Avenue, sending threatening messages to Trump's husband Jared Kushner and lashing out at jewelry store employees for failing to deliver an $800 pair of earrings to Trump, according to a 2010 New York Daily News report.

Since Massler's Nov. 29 arrest he has been held in Bellevue Hospital, but he has not yet been charged, according to multiple reports.

Massler's brother, Jeremy Massler, told the New York Post that the accused stalker did not come to New York to stalk Trump.

"He didn’t choose the hotel," Jeremy Massler told the Post. "I never got any indication he wanted to be near members of the Trump family. He came to New York because he has some friends and family here."

Photo by Rick Uldricks patch.com