An HGTV star is recounting a very, very scary time in her family’s life.

Erin Napier took to Instagram on Wednesday afternoon to give her fans insight into something unsettling that had been going on around her hometown of Laurel, Mississippi. In her shocking post, the 36-year-old mother relayed an incident a year ago where a man moved in down the street and started paying unwanted attention to her then-3-year-old daughter, Helen.

Related: Britney Spears’ Ex-Husband Pleads Guilty To Aggravated Stalking Charge

The Home Town star explained that she and her husband, Ben Napier, were busy working on their popular home renovation show when friends around town started tipping them off that there was strange activity going on in their backyard. Erin, who was pregnant at the time with the couple’s now 11-month-old daughter Mae, explained what happened one year ago in her IG post:

“May the 4th be with you. Not my favorite day, one year ago. We were filming the reveal for Donelle’s episode and CBS Sunday Morning when Ben started getting messages from lots of folks in town about a 54 year old California man dressed like a Star Wars storm trooper, wearing an ankle monitor bracelet, who had come to town and was saying some very strange things. Things like ‘God sent me here to protect the women of Laurel, specifically little Helen.'”

Whoa!!!

That’s…. really not good. And it gets worse. Explaining how things quickly escalated from there, Erin added that the creepy man moved in close by, and started tracking friends’ children out on walks.

Understandably, as the mom of two wrote, she and her 38-year-old husband were alarmed:

“He had bought a house a block from ours and was living in it with nothing but a suitcase and these toys for when my 3 year old daughter ‘comes over to visit.’ Ben saw red, his blood boiled. I was terrified and 9.5 months pregnant. In those two weeks that followed, before he was finally sent back to CA, he found Mal and Jim’s baby girl on walks with her nanny and said unsettling things. Disgusting things.”

Holy s**t!

Immediately, the home renovation star and others on her block took action. For a while, she explained, they employed round-the-clock security. Even after that — until the man apparently went away — she recounted how happy she was all of her neighbors banded together.

Napier explained:

“We all had 24 hour security officers at home, while we slept, while we worked. Helen asked who they were and why they were here, and we never told her the truth. ‘They work with us! They’re friends of ours who are staying with us for a little while!’ A year on, I still think of this thing every day but it doesn’t scare me anymore. I’m thankful for the way our neighborhood guarded us and put up a hedge of protection when we needed it and it further validated what I already knew: protect your kids in the online world much as you can.”

Jeez. We’re glad that the Make Something Good Today author and her family are safe now. And we are honestly encouraged to hear about the power of their community coming together to look out for each other.

But still, that’s just awful.

Related: Will Smith’s Mugshot From Brutal 1989 Assault Resurfaces Following Oscars Slap

Here is her full post from Wednesday (below):

Ugh.

Some people are just SO scary.

We send all our well wishes to the Napier family during this difficult time.

[Image via YouTube]

The post <i>HGTV</i> Star Shares TERRIFYING Story Of Stranger Who Bought House Near Them To 'Protect' Their Daughter appeared first on Perez Hilton.