Sabrina Carpenter Was Being Watched for Weeks Before Her Stalker Actually Showed Up at Her Front Door

He was not a fan who lost his mind at a concert. He was a stranger who showed up at her front door and tried to open it like he lived there.

On June 1, 2026, a Los Angeles County judge granted Sabrina Carpenter a temporary restraining order against 31-year-old William Applegate. A man she has never met. A man who believed, according to court documents, that she was expecting him.

She was not.

It Did Not Start on May 23. It Started Six Weeks Earlier.

This is the part most outlets glossed over.

Applegate’s Toyota Prius started appearing in Sabrina’s Hollywood Hills neighbourhood around April 20. Her security team clocked it. Each visit, the car parked a little closer to her home than the time before.

Sabrina did not even know he existed yet. She found out on May 23, when he trespassed onto her neighbour’s property, breached the security fencing, and walked directly to her front door.

He tried to open it.

Security guard Jorge Lepe confronted him with a flashlight. Applegate struck the guard. Police arrived. He was arrested on suspicion of trespassing, a misdemeanour.

Then he came back the next day. Parked 30 feet from her driveway. Fell asleep in his car for two hours. When Lepe approached him, his explanation was: “No just chilling in my car.”

He returned on May 25 as well. Seat reclined. Watching. LAPD called it “deliberate surveillance.”

What the Court Documents Actually Reveal

Carpenter filed for a civil harassment restraining order on May 29, supported by Ring camera footage, declarations from two private security guards, and a statement from LAPD detective Peter Doomanis, a threat management expert.

Doomanis wrote that Applegate had developed a “disturbing and irrational fixation” on Carpenter, and that his conduct follows “the hallmarks of a fixated, obsessional individual.”

When guards told him to leave on May 23, Applegate refused and claimed he personally knew Sabrina and that she was expecting him. Carpenter called that claim “outrageous and entirely false” in her own declaration.

She also wrote that this was “the most disturbing violation of personal safety and privacy” she has experienced.

According to NBC News, the restraining order also covers Sabrina’s sister Sarah Carpenter, 29, and Sarah’s partner George Smith, 26, both of whom live in the same home.

The 100-yard stay-away order applies to the home, Sabrina’s workplace, and her vehicle. A full hearing is set for June 17. Applegate faces criminal court on June 18.

Why the Fame Timeline Matters Here

Sabrina is not just a rising artist right now. She is at the absolute peak of her visibility.

Her album Short n’ Sweet gave her her first No. 1. She opened for Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour. Her Manchild teaser became the most-watched video preview of 2025 on X. She attended the 2026 Met Gala. She performed at the Grammys.

That level of exposure does not just bring opportunity. It brings obsession. And obsession, left unchecked, escalates exactly the way this case did.

Attorney Christopher Chaney, quoted by ABC7, explained the pattern clearly: it starts with Instagram messages and letters, moves to showing up at live appearances, then “that slight little interaction” feeds the delusion further. And then it progresses.

This case hit that final stage. A stranger at the door who thought he belonged there.

If you follow cases where home security and celebrity incidents collide, there is a WhatsApp channel called Real Estate Pulse worth checking out. It covers stories like this as they break, without waiting for the news cycle to catch up.

This pattern of escalating boundary violations is not limited to musicians either. Laura Clery faced her own terrifying home safety scare when a 600-pound fridge nearly crushed her with her kids right there, a reminder of how fast things at home can go wrong with no warning.

Why This Matters

Sabrina’s situation is not an isolated incident. It is a documented pattern.

According to a peer-reviewed study published in PLOS One and indexed on the National Institutes of Health database, an estimated 1.7 million people are stalked in the United States every year.

The study also found that celebrity stalking reaches the level of a societal problem when fandom crosses into obsessional pursuit.

The behaviour LAPD described in Applegate’s case, the fixation, the escalating proximity, the delusional belief of a relationship, matches exactly what researchers call “erotomania-adjacent” stalking. It rarely stops on its own.

Taylor Swift dealt with a similar case in 2026, where a stalker appeared at her property insisting he was in a relationship with her. Harry Styles had a woman send him over 8,000 cards in under a month before she was jailed in 2024.

The pattern is the same every time. And every time, it takes a court order to make it stop.

Chris Brown knows that reality too. His home was hit by the same trespasser two times before sunrise, and police were involved again before any formal protection was in place.

It is also why high-profile homeowners are now treating security as a non-negotiable feature, not an afterthought. RHOM star Alexia Nepola’s new $5.3M Ritz-Carlton home has the exact kind of security feature that wealthy homeowners at this level now consider essential.

Sabrina’s security team documented everything from April 20 onward. That record is what made the restraining order possible in 6 days. That matters.

Key Takeaways

• William Applegate, 31, was granted a 100-yard stay-away order on June 1, 2026
• Surveillance of Sabrina’s home began approximately April 20, over 5 weeks before court action
• On May 23, Applegate breached security fencing, attempted to open her front door, and struck a security guard
• He returned on May 24 and May 25 for continued surveillance
• The restraining order also protects sister Sarah Carpenter and her partner George Smith
• Full civil hearing is June 17. Criminal trespassing case goes to court June 18
• Carpenter described it as the worst violation of personal safety she has experienced

What do you think should change about how celebrity stalking cases are handled from the start?

Should trespassing at someone’s home carry stronger criminal charges immediately, or is the current legal process doing enough? Drop your take in the comments. Genuinely curious where people stand on this one.

Wrapping Up

A stranger spent over five weeks circling Sabrina Carpenter’s home before anyone could legally stop him. Three visits after his first arrest. A court order took six days to land once the paperwork was filed.

That timeline says a lot about where the system currently sits.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. All details are based on publicly available court documents and reports at the time of publication.