Each of my previous four blog posts have been primarily about the attempted theft and successful theft of my property in downtown Dickinson, North Dakota where I live.  I would like to get off of this subject, but I can’t, because this shit keeps on happening, faster than I can even write about it.

Beginning on May 27, 2019 when I found my white color Mongoose Mountain Bicycle hanging from its bicycle cable-lock off the back of my truck parked where I live, my neighbors in the apartment building where I live, and my neighbors living in the houses in this area, they all told me that they believed that it was the people in the “Drug House” at the end of the street that were responsible for all of the crime in our neighborhood.

It was pointed out to me again and again by my neighbors, that the Dickinson Police are at the “Drug House” nearly every day.  If you watch what goes on down there, the Police are at this house looking for suspects, looking for stolen property, serving arrest warrants and arresting people, serving search warrants and arresting people for possession of illegal drugs and stolen property, serving eviction notices, evicting people, and responding to disputes.

Having observed all of the Police activity at the “Drug House” that goes on daily, people in our neighborhood have taken note of the individuals that come and go from the Drug House all day long by vehicle, by bicycle, and on foot, and the people who sit or loiter outside of the Drug House.

Everyone in our neighborhood is suspicious and concerned when they see the residents and visitors of the Drug House parked in their vehicle, bicycling, or walking in the neighborhood, because they are worried that they are planning on stealing something or breaking into a vehicle or home.  The parking, bicycling, and walking often appear to have no other purpose than spotting and planning things to steal.

Besides the successful theft of my white color Mongoose Mountain Bicycle, and the cutting through of the bicycle cable-lock on my red color Mongoose Mountain Bicycle, some of my neighbors have had a luggage rack stolen, a trailer hitch stolen, an expensive bicycle stolen, a baby stroller stolen, a car broken into, a house broken into, and most recently this past week a Honda Civic stolen.

Myself and all of my neighbors would like for this Drug House to be gone.  Burning it down, bulldozing it down, getting a community grant to buy it and destroy it, or having the Building Inspector or Fire Marshall declare it uninhabitable are options that have been considered.

I talked to the property manager of the apartment building where I live about the thefts that I have had, which appear to be caused by people walking up the street from the Drug House.  He looked up the owner of the Drug House, put the office phone on speaker, and called the owner of the Drug House while I was sitting there.  When the phone picked up, he said, “Hey John, I think that you have got a drug problem going on at the house that you own.”  John said without hesitation, “Oh I know that I do.”

John, the owner of the Drug House, was an elderly man in his late 60s or 70s.  He sounded tired and nearly worn out, almost exasperated.  He explained that he had three evictions currently going on at this house, and that none of these people would leave.  It appeared that it was never the elderly owner John’s intention to have rented to drug addicts and criminals.

Apparently, this Drug House was subdivided into small rental units, which are not very appealing, and they are very low rent, as low as $250 per month.  People with a criminal record, drug addiction, no high school diploma, no job skills, who can’t get a job or can’t keep a job, with very little income, they rent a unit in the Drug House because this is one of the cheapest places in Dickinson.

After the theft of my white color Mongoose Mountain Bicycle on June 6, I drove around Dickinson looking for this bicycle.  I stopped and talked to my neighbors, and I showed them photos of this stolen bicycle.  And, I stopped at the Drug House several times to show the tenants and loiterers photos of my stolen bicycle.

The female residents of the Drug House were very receptive in hearing about my stolen bicycle and looking at photos.  They would say how that was bad, they were sorry, and that they would keep an eye out for it.  The male residents of the Drug House would say get the fuck out of here with that shit, we didn’t steal your bicycle.

On the night of June 25, when every Dickinson Patrol Officer on duty at the time had to respond to a dispute involving residents of the Drug House, after this things changed for a couple of weeks.  The Police had to chase, taser, arrest, and take to jail an individual who was combative with them and non-compliant.  Removing this individual from the Drug House seemed to help quiet things down for a while.

Several residents of the Drug House, and several visitors to the Drug House were detained and questioned by the Police.  The visitors to the Drug House did not like being detained, identified, and questioned, and they quit going to the Drug House.  The women residents of the Drug House didn’t like this either and they were upset about it.

In the days following this incident, when the women residents of the Drug House were still upset about this, I talked to them about everything that had been going on recently.  Some of the residents of the Drug House were not renters, they were people who had no place to go, and they would not leave, this was the case for the person who got tased and arrested, his name was Steven.

Everything was quiet until the Honda Civic got stolen on Sunday morning July 14.  Possibly or probably the worst thing to come from all of this, was that I started talking to the drug addict women, which I will explain in my next blog post.