Unwanted pen pal goes to the pen

Officials in Mason City have arrested a man who’s suspected of being an unwelcome “pen pal” of sorts. It began when two Mason City women active in local politics — one a democrat, the other republican — began getting letters return addressed from each other, nasty letters. Instead of flying off the handle, they got on the phone, and found out neither had sent the letters. They went public with the story and more people started coming forward to say they were getting hate mail, some of it with frighteningly personal details about them, like a woman who opened an envelope that contained a picture of her clipped from a local newspaper, with insulting remarks about her weight. Worst of all, most of the prank mail was signed with names of the first two victims. Other recipients of the unwelcome snail mail are still coming forward, but Mason City police have arrested 55-year-old Bradley Paulsen and he’s charged with four counts of third-degree harassment.