Tag Archives: theft in Dickinson North Dakota

Everyone In Dickinson Needs To Get Ready For A Huge Amount Of Theft

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For those of you who have never read my blog articles before, I have experienced a great deal of theft since moving to downtown Dickinson in the Spring of 2017.  In my almost 51 years of being alive, I had more theft in Dickinson during these past three years, than in the entirety of my previous 48 years, living in eight different states.

In 2017 I had my truck stolen, with $2,500 worth of tools, equipment, and valuables in it.  In 2018 I had a mountain bike stolen off the back of a different vehicle, by two people who used a rotary Dremel tool to cut through the cable lock, and a short time later someone cut through the cable lock on a different bicycle of mine parked in the apartment building bicycle rack.

In 2019 and 2020, one of my neighbors had a locked bicycle stolen on two different occasions, another neighbor had his vehicle luggage carrier stolen, one neighbor had his wallet with a week’s pay inside of it stolen from his vehicle parked in his driveway, an apartment neighbor had a revolver stolen from behind the backseat of his vehicle in the parking lot, another apartment neighbor had his stereo and speakers stolen from his vehicle in the parking lot.  There were more thefts than this, it’s hard to remember them all, and many attempted thefts.

In 2018, I installed two security cameras outside of my apartment that record continuously.  When I am home, I can usually see the video monitor that shows what is happening outside in the parking lot and out on the street beside my apartment building.  Do these cameras record these thefts and attempted thefts, and do I give the video to the Police?  Yes.

From watching the video monitor when I am home, from watching the video recordings of the thefts and attempted thefts, and being outside my apartment building, I can tell you what is happening and what to look for.

During the afternoon and evening, males between the ages of 17 to 30 walk the streets like they are trying to get somewhere, but if you watch them, watch what they are doing, and where they are going, you will see that the route that they are taking is not necessary or not getting them anywhere the quickest or most direct way.  Nor are they going to or coming from a place of employment, store, or business.

When I am walking, I don’t walk as close as possible to parked vehicles, within inches, when the roadway and sidewalk is 40 feet wide, but I am not checking to see which vehicles have the door lock buttons pressed down, and what items are inside of parked vehicles.  I also don’t walk holding my phone at chest height, video recording what is inside of parked vehicles on the street, but I am not planning on coming back late at night to steal things.

A few of my neighbors and myself, we have followed the people who have walked beside our vehicles recording what is inside of them, and we have called the Police.  One time the Police did catch and arrest one of these people a short time later, for fleeing, eluding, resisting arrest, and other charges.  Another time, by the time the Police arrived we couldn’t find the person, but a short while later another apartment resident caught this person in the fenced-off, utility corridor behind the apartment building, questioned them, and told them that they had to leave.

The thieving people are usually males between the ages of 17 to 30.  They are usually drug addicts and drug users.  They are unemployed, do not have steady employment, or do not have good employment.  They live in low-rent apartment buildings, subdivided houses made into low-rent apartments, with their mom, or with their grandmother.

If they lived with their father or grandfather, these older males would say, “Oh no, you’re not going out at 1:00 a.m. to steal things in this neighborhood and bringing it back here.”  But women, who knows, maybe they are either dumb or they play dumb, their little angel who has been arrested multiple times for theft and possession of drugs, he’s just going to visit his friends at 1:00 a.m., he’s not doing anything wrong.

Because the Police can’t be everywhere at once, and it is technically not illegal for unemployed, drug-addict, criminal record males to be walking the streets between midnight and 3:00 a.m., the Police have a hard time preventing or catching these thieves.  And because mothers and grandmothers are either dumb or are playing dumb about the five bicycles, five car stereos, five laptop computers, and five mobile phones stashed in their garage or basement by their unemployed, drug addict son, the thieving continues.

In the past two days, I was out working on my vehicles during the afternoon and evening, and never ever before have I seen so many young males between the ages of 17 to 30 wearing hoodies, walking down the streets and sidewalks getting as close as they can to parked vehicles, and looking in parked vehicles.  They were like moths or insects buzzing around and bumping into a porch light as far as cars parked out on the street.

This neighborhood that I live in is a bad neighborhood.  It is mostly a blue-collar, lower-middle-class, poor, drug addict neighborhood.  It’s the very low rent apartments, high number of subdivided homes made into low-rent apartments, poor single mothers and poor single grandmothers, that provide the habitat for these unemployed, drug addict, criminal record, thieving young males.

What can you do?  Whenever you see a male between the ages of 17 to 30 walking down the street or riding a little BMX bicycle down the street in Dickinson, don’t try to think that they are going to or from work, going to the store, or going to visit a friend.  They don’t have a job, they don’t have any money, and if they are going to visit someone’s house it is drug related.  Watch what they do, watch where they are going, try to figure out where they are going or where they are coming from.  They are out looking for anything that they can steal.

Make sure that every window and every door in your house or apartment is closed and locked.  Before you go anywhere, and before you go to bed at night, make sure that all ground-floor doors and windows are closed and locked, especially in the basement, and the garage.

Install flood lights and motion activated lights to illuminate your front yard, back yard, and vehicle parking areas.  Try to reduce the amount of possible concealment around your house, such as overgrown hedges, bushes, and shrubs.  Do not leave anything outside during the day or night that would attract thieves, such as bicycles, lawn mowers, snow blowers, air compressors, chain saws, welders, motorcycles, fishing poles, golf clubs, ice chests, etc.

Apartment building owners and home owners need to install fencing not just to keep people who don’t belong from accessing their property, but to block off the backyard cut-throughs that neighborhood children create, but end up getting used by vagrants and thieves at 1:00 a.m.

Most importantly, start watching what passersby are doing in your neighborhood, and ask yourself what are they doing, do they belong here, do they have a reason for being here, do they look like they are actually trying to get somewhere, or do they seem to be here for some other purpose?  If you see someone acting suspicious, let your neighbors know, so that they can watch too, put away their belongings, lock their vehicle doors, and start being more careful about locking up their house.

These young adults that you see walking around the streets in Dickinson, do not give them the benefit of the doubt anymore.  You don’t have to stop and question them, just recognize that they are a threat, because so many people in Dickinson are drug addict thieves.

What Is Happening To The Stolen Bicycles In Dickinson, North Dakota

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Between 8 p.m. Sunday night and 4 a.m. Monday morning, someone cut the chain on my neighbor Matt’s bicycle in his front yard, and stole it.  This is the second bicycle that has been stolen from my neighbor Matt in this past year.

This most recent bicycle that was stolen from Matt was only worth about $100.  However the previous bicycle that was stolen from Matt was worth about $500 to $2,000 because it was a very good condition mountain bike that was a rare, collectible bicycle, that there are very few of in existence.

Six months ago I had my white color Mongoose mountain bicycle stolen where I live in downtown Dickinson.  This bicycle had a 1/2″ diameter steel Master Lock cable going through its frame and tires.  The thieves made an unsuccessful attempt, then came back one week later with a Dremel type cutting disk, and cut through the steel cable.   I say “thieves”, because there were two of them, the theft was recorded by my security camera.

The Mongoose mountain bicycle that was stolen from me was rare.  In the seven years that I owned it, I never ever saw another one like it where I bought it in Texas, or in Idaho, Utah, and North Dakota where I was living.  It had a white frame, with green/black accents, and green/black parts.

My white Mongoose bicycle, and especially Matt’s rare, collectible bicycle, could not be painted without destroying the value.  Even if my stolen bicycle, or Matt’s stolen bicycle were painted, we would still be able to recognize our bicycles.  The point is, whoever stole our bicycles, can’t ride them or try to sell them in Dickinson, and they know it.

Unpainted, at a glance I could recognize my stolen Mongoose bicycle 1/8 mile away on the street, driving by a yard, porch, or open garage.  Matt could recognize his stolen bicycle the same as I could identify mine.  Either one of us spotting our stolen bicycles would result in us stopping the rider, going up to where it was located, talking to whoever had it, and then calling the Police.

It became apparent that these stolen bicycles aren’t being sold or ridden in Dickinson.  I will explain again, that these are not kids doing this.  The thieves recorded by my security camera stealing my bicycle were not kids.  Kids don’t come out at 2:00 a.m. with large bolt cutters and Dremel tools, to cut chains and lock cables.

In any case, even if it were kids who were stealing our bicycles, they are not selling them or riding them in Dickinson.  These stolen bicycles are being stored somewhere, out of sight, in someplace like a backyard with concealment, a basement, garage, utility shed, house, trailer, or van.

There would be no point in stealing these bicycles if the thieves couldn’t sell them or ride them in Dickinson.  The thieves must be taking these stolen bicycles to some place like Bismarck.  Bismarck is the closest large city, 100 miles to the east.

The four hour, 200 mile round trip to Bismarck with stolen bicycles wouldn’t be worth the time and the cost of the trip, unless the thieves had more than several stolen bicycles to sell.  This means that the thieves have to be using either a van or an enclosed utility trailer to make the trip to Bismarck, or wherever they are traveling to sell these stolen bicycles.

Is has occurred to me, and other people have commented to me, that it should not be that difficult for the Police in Dickinson to find out who has a van load or trailer load full of stolen bicycles.  They just have to catch the bicycle thief one time, or a neighbor has to see this happening and report it, or a criminal in custody has to snitch, or an informant has to tell, and then its over for this bicycle theft ring of criminals.

It’s kind of like the Police in Dickinson are allowing this to happen, like this is harmless.  I wonder if the Police in Dickinson aren’t using some kind of logic like, “If we let these people steal small things, and commit small crimes, then they won’t have to commit big crimes like armed robbery.”

I wish that the Police in Dickinson would try to stop all crime, and not have any tolerance for any crime.  But, crime in Dickinson is not entirely the fault of the Police.  The Judges and the Department of Corrections keep letting all the criminals loose on parole/probation instead of jail/prison.

Look For People With Phones Taking Pictures Of Your Property In Dickinson, North Dakota

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In May through July of this year, I had to telephone the Police in Dickinson about seven times due to the theft or attempted theft of my property, or other people’s property in downtown Dickinson where I live.

What my neighbors noticed in June, was that people would walk beside our vehicles with their phone held out in front of them or beside them, taking pictures of what was inside our vehicles.

In late June, one of my neighbors got in his vehicle, and he tried to follow and take a photo of one of the people who was doing this, but he tried to turn away, and get away in order to not be photographed.  This particular person was arrested out on the street about three hours later for several different charges unrelated to the photographing of property inside people’s vehicles.

Since then, I have caught two other people photographing what was in the back of my truck or inside of my vehicle.  In July, one of these people was a young, plump, red haired girl that was about 14 years old that was out walking her small dog.  I was across the street sitting in my truck talking on the phone one evening, watching this girl walk around the corner and walk down the sidewalk, then she stopped at the back corner of my other vehicle, took her phone out, and began videoing what was inside this vehicle of mine.

I had to stop my phone call, quietly get out of my truck, crouch down below the roof of my other vehicle across the street, sneak over there, and when I stood up at the front corner of my vehicle, the very first thing that she did was try to hide her phone.  I was not mean to her, I explained to her that I had had my property stolen from my vehicle recently, why was she videoing what was in my vehicle?

I waited for her to walk away and around the corner, then I drove down a parallel street, until I could see what house it was that she returned to.  Was she spotting things to steal for an older brother, or do people pay kids to locate things to steal?

The second person that I caught videoing what was in my truck, was in late August.  Me and my neighbor were working on his car on one side of the street, and I looked over to see a skinny man about 27 years old, walking on the other side of the street where there is no sidewalk, walking in the street, passing just an inch beside each vehicle, with his phone held out in front of him, pointing inside of these vehicles.

No, he was not on his phone having a conversation.  No, he was not out getting some exercise.  I waited for him to get to the next corner, where he made a right turn to head east.  I got in my truck, and I followed him, staying about a block away.  At the very next corner he made a right turn, to head south.  When he got to the next corner, he saw me, and he stopped.

It appeared that he lived about one block away, whether it was the shitty house on the corner, or the apartment building across the street, I don’t know.  But he saw me, and he knew, that I knew what he was doing.

For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about, people leave things in their vehicle:  phone, phone charger, music CDs, wallet, purse, laptop computer, camera, radar detector, tools, etcetera.  Rather than stand there for a minute looking through a car window at the dashboard, front seat, back seat, back window, and trying to determine what is there, what kind of stereo is there, what is it worth, is there a car alarm, the thief can just walk by with his phone and video everything in one pass.  He can look at the video later to see what is inside each vehicle.

It appears, that if the people who are doing this are spotted and followed, especially if they are followed all the way back to where they live, and they realize that they have been followed, they temporarily give up their theft plans for that route where they were caught.

A Definitive Answer On Why There Is So Much Crime In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I am sick of writing about the crime in Dickinson, North Dakota, and you are probably tired of reading about it.  I began to find the definitive answer on why there is so much crime in Dickinson, but I hesitated to write about it, because I thought that it would be too difficult to explain, though the answer is simple.

I am going to refer readers to a series of recent articles, presented by the Dickinson Press newspaper, sponsored by the North Dakota Newspaper Association, where one of their journalists, Sam Easter, did a very thorough investigation on why there is so much crime in North Dakota.  This journalist presented all of the facts and figures, but he didn’t shout the answer or conclusion loud enough, maybe he wasn’t permitted to do so because of the political implications.  (refer to this link https://www.thedickinsonpress.com/news/crime-and-courts/4046635-Too-big-too-fast-North-Dakota’s-other-housing-problem, at the bottom of this article there is a link to all of the articles in this series.)

Here is the answer:  In the late 1990s, the state of North Dakota made a deliberate transition from consistent stiff incarceration penalties for drug crimes and theft, to less incarceration penalties and more probation for offenders.  The fact is, it costs the state of North Dakota about $43,000 per year to incarcerate an offender, versus about $1,700 per year to put an offender on probation.

These very high-up people in North Dakota government, like the Governors, Attorney Generals, and State Legislators, they tried to present to North Dakotans, that there needed to be more money spent on prisons.  The North Dakotans were, unsurprisingly, too cheap and pinch-penny to want to spend more money on prisons.

In order to remain popular, and to get re-elected, the Governors, Attorney Generals, and State Legislators, they never came out and said, “Listen you dumb sons-of-bitches, if you don’t spend this money to build new prisons, you are going to be overrun with crime and criminals in your communities.”

Instead, the Governors, Attorney Generals, State Legislators, Judges, and Prosecuting Attorneys have implemented this “Probation for Everyone” policy, knowing full well that the communities would become overrun with criminals.  Their belief was probably that once the ordinary citizens became tired of dealing with so much crime and so many criminals every day, that it would come to the point where North Dakotans would ask for more prisons to be built.

The Governors, Attorney Generals, State Legislators, Judges, Prosecuting Attorneys, Probation Officers, and Police Officers know why there is so much crime in Dickinson, North Dakota, but the problem is that the ordinary citizens don’t know.

The prisons in North Dakota are currently completely full, because new prisons have not been built.  Because the prisons in North Dakota are full, with no room for additional prisoners,  people who are convicted of drug crime and theft in North Dakota are given very little jail time, and probation.

Many of the Probation Officers in North Dakota have as many as 130 offenders to supervise on probation, because probation is given rather than incarceration.  The Police in Dickinson have seen for years, that they can successfully arrest someone for possession of methamphetamine and possession of stolen property, the offender is released from jail on bail, the Police arrest this same offender again for another possession of meth and stolen property while they are out on bail awaiting trial, and in the end, this offender only ever spends a month total in jail, and gets probation.

When I looked up the person who stole my truck in 2017 on the North Dakota Court Repository, he should have still been in prison for an arson charge, while he was out committing multiple felony thefts, and he should have been in prison for these multiple felony thefts, while he was out stealing my truck.  He was out of prison on probation, while he was caught in possession of stolen property, and he was out on bail for this possession of stolen property, when he stole my truck.

I e-mailed a judge who had adjudicated many of this thief’s criminal cases over the years to ask him why he kept suspending most of this person’s prison sentences, when this person kept repeating and repeating felony thefts again and again over the past twenty years, and this judge was outraged, and he told me to go ask the prosecutor.

If you read the Dickinson Press newspaper “Police Blotter” or “Crime and Courts” articles, and go look up the people named who have been charged with theft and possession of illegal drugs using the North Dakota Court Repository on the internet, you will almost always find that they are currently on probation for a previous charge of theft and possession of drugs, and in many cases they are currently out on bail awaiting trial for a previous arrest for theft and possession of drugs.

The Police in Dickinson arrest the same several hundred people for theft, possession of drugs, and drug dealing, over and over again, multiple times each year, because these offenders are not being incarcerated, they are being let out of jail almost immediately right back into Dickinson.  Also, these repeat offenders have no fear of committing crime in Dickinson because their punishment is so lenient.

The Drug House In Dickinson, North Dakota

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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.

June 6, 2019 Bicycle Theft Video Dickinson, North Dakota

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My previous two blog posts described the attempted theft and successful theft of my property in downtown Dickinson, North Dakota on May 27, June 6, June 15, and June 25 of 2019.

In this blog post, I just want to focus on the successful theft of my white color Mongoose Mountain Bicycle from my vehicle that occurred on June 6, 2019, and show the surveillance video of this theft.

There was an attempted theft of this white color Mongoose Mountain Bicycle on May 27, where this bicycle was left hanging from the back of my vehicle by its bicycle cable-lock.  Dickinson Police Officer Langler who responded to my reporting this attempted theft to the Dickinson Police Dispatch, he suggested that I buy a trail camera or a security camera, so I bought a security camera and installed it that same day.

On June 6, 2019 at approximately 2:19:00 a.m., the security camera recorded two adults riding up to my vehicle on black BMX bicycles.  On this video, look at the white truck parked on the far side of the street.  At approximately 2:21:00 a.m., the security video shows one of the thieves riding away on my white color Mongoose Mountain Bicycle, while he holds onto the handle bars of the small black BMX bicycle that he rode up on.

When watching this video, click on the settings icon to select the highest video resolution which will probably be 480p, then click on the full screen view icon.  Look at the surveillance video time stamp, and start viewing at 02:19:00 a.m.

I want to explain several things that I have not already covered in my previous two blog posts.  This white color Mongoose Mountain Bicycle, I bought it for $225 in Uvalde, Texas while I was working in the oil field of southwest Texas, near Carrizo Springs in 2012.  On the weekends I rode this bicycle through the sparsely populated, rural areas along the Nueces River.  I kept this bicycle in very good condition for the past seven years, it has more sentimental value and memories associated with it, than cash value.

You have got to realize, that two grown adults made one attempt to steal this bicycle on May 27, then they made plans to come back with a Dremel tool on June 6 at 2:20 a.m. in the morning, to crouch down and take two minutes to cut through a 3/8″ steel bicycle cable-lock out on the street, and then ride down the street holding onto another bicycle, to obtain something that they could sell for only $80 to $100.  Do any grown adults do anything as stupid as this, to split $80 to $100 between them, and risk going to jail, if they are not Methamphetamine addicts?

I was upset at having this bicycle stolen, because it means something to me, not because it is worth a lot of money.  But more importantly, if two adults are going to come out at night in my neighborhood with a Dremel tool, looking to steal things worth as little as $80, is anything inside or outside my vehicle, or anyone else’s vehicle safe?

It was pointed out to me by several different Dickinson Police Officers, neighbors living in my apartment building, and neighbors living in homes in this neighborhood, that there is a “Drug House” down the street from me.  On average, the Dickinson Police have to go to this “Drug House” about once a day.

Neighbors pointed out to me the vehicles that have been broken into, the other property that has been stolen like bicycles, luggage racks, trailer hitches, and a baby stroller, and following tracks in the snow back to the “Drug House” down the street.  Some of this was explained in my previous blog post.

Something else that needs to be realized, is that these stolen items like an $80 bicycle or an $80 luggage rack, it is unlikely that someone would drive one or two of these items at a time immediately to Bismarck or Rapid City to try to sell them, because it wouldn’t be worth the trip time-wise or the cost of fuel.  There has got to be some shed or garage in downtown Dickinson, that is full of stolen bicycles, car luggage racks, trailer hitches and everything else that has been stolen downtown in the past month or two.

Lastly, besides evidence that seems to point to the people in the “Drug House” down the street being involved in the attempted theft and successful theft of my property downtown where I live, in the original HD high resolution video where I can zoom-in, the person riding away on my Mongoose Mountain Bicycle reminded me of someone who works at a business in downtown Dickinson.

The person who was riding away on my Mongoose Bicycle, who reminded me of a person who works at a business downtown, I looked him up on the internet to learn his last name, let’s say that his last name is “Harter”, an unusual name that I have never really come across anyone having this last name before.  (“Harter” is not his actual last name, I don’t want to ruin the Police investigation, however I want people to be able to figure this out.)

When I went to the Dickinson Police Station on June 26 following the arrest of the person from the “Drug House” who was using his phone to photograph the property in my truck downtown where I live, there was another individual from the “Drug House” at the Police Station, and just then the “Harter” guy who looks like the person who stole my bicycle shows up at the Police Station too.

Then, I find out that the “Drug House” resident who is always walking up and down the streets during the day spotting things to steal when it gets dark, her last name is “Harter”.

Also, for about eight years of my life as a kid and as a teenager, I rode my bicycle for an average of about four hours every day.  It is very hard to ride a bicycle, and hold onto a second bicycle by the handle bars, pulling it along with you, because the second bicycle always wants to steer into you or away from you, it is very hard to do.  It is hard to ride down from a curb on a bicycle with only one hand on the handle bars, even much more so while holding onto a second bicycle.  There are only a few people in Dickinson who have this much experience riding bicycles, to ride away holding a second BMX bicycle by the handle bars, and drop down from a curb one-handed, like shown in the surveillance video.

Why I Haven’t Written About Dickinson, North Dakota For A Month

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I have not written about Dickinson, North Dakota for a month.  This is the longest that I have gone in the past five years without writing anything.  This has been one of the worst months of my life.  Most of my problems involved being sick, my Siamese cat, going back to Idaho to work on my house, and thefts where I live in downtown Dickinson.

Everything that went wrong for me, was not nearly as important or consequential as the thefts of my property in downtown Dickinson, North Dakota.  The last blog post that I wrote on May 27 titled “Early Morning Thefts In Downtown Dickinson, North Dakota”, turned out to be just the beginning.

On the morning of May 27, I found my white color Mongoose mountain bicycle hanging from it’s bicycle cable lock, with the front wheel undone, hanging off the back of my truck.  I took Dickinson Police Officer Langler’s advice when he came to take a report, to purchase a security camera.

On the morning of June 6, I found that my white color Mongoose mountain bicycle was gone.  The surveillance video showed two adults ride up on black BMX bicylces, cut through the bicycle cable lock, and ride off on my bicycle at 2:21 a.m.  Dickinson Police Officer Kinto took a report on this theft.

On the morning of June 15, a neighbor found the bicycle cable lock cut through on my older red color Mongoose mountain bicycle parked in the bicycle rack.  The surveillance video showed an adult walk up to this bicycle and crouch down beside it at 2:31 a.m.  Dickinson Police Officer Bates took a report on this attempted theft where the bicycle cable lock was cut through.

On the evening of June 25 at 7:20 p.m., my neighbors observed an adult male taking pictures of what was in the back of my truck using his phone, apparently the set of four truck tires.  The Dickinson Police were not very helpful at first when I was trying to explain this to them, they were especially not helpful when they later tasered this individual 100 feet from my truck when he was being combative and non-compliant with them, in regards to a dispute.

I tried to explain about the attempted theft and successful theft of my property on May 27, June 6, June 15, and at 7:20 p.m. this evening by this individual now in their custody in the back of their patrol vehicle to several Dickinson Police Officers standing there, but they didn’t want to hear about it, except for Officer Langler, who unfortunately had to leave on another call.  I couldn’t believe it, I thought that I would have a very difficult time catching this person, and now that the Police had him in custody in their patrol vehicle, they didn’t want to hear about it.

The following morning, June 26, I was able to give a written statement and three surveillance videos to Dickinson Police Sergeant Moser who was in charge of the day shift, in the hope that the Dickinson Police Department could use all of this information with the dates, times, and videos to make some progress in theft investigations in Dickinson.

Dickinson Police Officers Langler, Kinto, Bates, and Moser were professional and they appeared to have a genuine interest in stopping the thefts in downtown Dickinson.  But something is wrong beyond these specific instances of theft and attempted theft where I live in downtown Dickinson, something is wrong with the Mayor Scott Decker, the Police Chief Dusty Dassinger, the Judges, the City of Dickinson Commissioners, the long-time local residents, and the out of state workers in Dickinson.

I have lived in small towns, college towns, oil field towns, medium-sized towns, and big cities like Tampa, Phoenix, and Fort Worth.  Dickinson has by far the worst theft and drug crime, and it only has a population of 25,000 people.

What I believe is the deliberate under-reporting of crime in Dickinson, is doing way more harm than good.  If crime is really bad and out of control, let the people know, let the Mayor know, let the City Commissioners know, so that additional officers or detectives can be hired, or even ask for assistance from the State Police.

There seems to be some kind of unwritten understanding between Police Chief Dusty Dassinger, the Judges, and the thieves and drug addicts in Dickinson, that the theft of property is not that bad, drug activity is not that bad, as long as you don’t do anything violent, you’re O.K.

The behind the scenes attitude of Mayor Scott Decker, Police Chief Dusty Dassinger, the City of Dickinson Commissioners, and the Judges, that the city is just going to have to live with theft and drug crime, there isn’t much that you can do about it, let’s try to minimize the reporting of crime in Dickinson, we aren’t going to hire more Police Officers, let’s just try to make it through these post oil boom years, and all of this will die off, ……..this attitude of allowing it, permitting it, and ignoring it is making Dickinson have the worst crime of anywhere I have ever lived in my life.

Early Morning Thefts In Downtown Dickinson, North Dakota

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I spent a good part of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday during daylight hours, working on vehicles, getting things done, making progress.  Each night I looked on the internet for parts, vehicle problems that were similar to what I had, and repairs that other people had done.

This morning, Memorial Day, when I went outside my apartment building to go to my truck, I saw that someone had tried to steal my mountain bike from the bed of my truck.  I had a cable lock going through the bicycle frame and front wheel, because the front wheel has a quick-release lever.  The front wheel was removed and hanging there, and the bike was pulled out and hanging there.

This really made me angry, for a whole bunch of reasons.  I keep a lot of tools and equipment in my vehicles.  I use these tools and equipment regularly, and they need to stay in my vehicle.  Things like a battery jump start box, battery charger, digital multi-meter, compressed air tank, socket set, cordless tool set, dremel tools, other tools, spare tires, shop jack, and so forth.  This truck got stolen in Dickinson in 2016, and $2,000 worth of tools and equipment were removed from it.

When this truck got stolen in Dickinson in 2016, the tools and equipment that were taken from it, plus the four new tires that were taken off of it, plus the time and money that I spent driving around from Richardton to New England to Belfield looking for my truck and handing out flyers, this all cost me a loss of about $3,000.

The person who stole my truck and later abandoned it, he is a long-time, well-known car thief in the Dickinson area, and a drug addict.  He spends most of his time in jail and in prison.  Getting arrested, being placed in jail, and going to prison are not a deterrent to him, nor will he ever, ever be able to pay any restitution for what he stole.

So now, I have a cable lock going through my truck steering wheel, a cable lock going through my spare tires, and a cable lock going through my mountain bike.  I have to double check that my tool box is locked, and I have to double check that anything of value is locked inside of a locked chest, which is cable locked to the seat frame.

But all of this locking everything up, all of this worry about locking up everything that I own, trying to keep the tools and equipment that I use and need, it’s like a losing battle here in Dickinson.  Living in Dickinson, it’s always, always one step forward, and two steps back.

Low-life, scum-of-the-earth thieves still roam the streets of downtown Dickinson at night trying to steal things out of people’s vehicles.  They aren’t afraid of the Police, they aren’t afraid of going to jail, and they aren’t afraid of going to prison.  The Police, the Judges, the jail, and prison aren’t bad enough or severe enough for them to be afraid, these things aren’t a deterrent to them.

I have to be careful about what I say, but I would like to kill the next person that I catch trying to steal something from me or vandalize something that I own.  I know that I would probably get caught, that I would go to prison for years, maybe life, maybe get the death penalty.  The thieves in Dickinson have no fear of getting caught, they will keep on stealing because their punishment is never severe enough, so I would just like to kill them right on the spot.

I called the Dickinson Police this morning, and an officer came and he looked at what I had going on.  The Police Officer suggested to me that I get a trail camera.  I went to Menards and I bought a high-definition security camera system for $190.  I mounted the outdoor weatherproof high-definition security camera on my apartment balcony, aimed at where I park my vehicles.

The power and video cable from the outdoor camera go to a DVR inside my apartment that has a 1 terabyte hard drive.  The default operation of the outdoor camera and DVR is to record video whenever motion is detected.  However, I changed the settings so that the outdoor camera video is recorded continuously.  There is enough memory for the camera video to be recorded continuously for eighty hours before the DVR automatically begins overwriting the older video.

Now, I sit here in my living room glancing at my television screen, which shows what is going on in the apartment building parking lot and out on the street.  This afternoon, I went over to one of my neighbor’s house to tell him what had happened, and he and his wife told me that a luggage carrier had been stolen off of a truck one block away earlier this week.

The second neighbor that I spoke to this afternoon, he told me what else had been stolen this past week in this neighborhood.  The third neighbor that I spoke to, he showed me the Nissan car that had been broken into last week.  The first two neighbors that I spoke to this afternoon, they had an idea where the thieves are coming from, and this area is where I thought they were coming from too.

There is a very wretched and distressed apartment building, and several very distressed houses that have been subdivided into little cubby holes for the drug addicts to live in, that pretty much guarantee that we will always have crime in this neighborhood downtown.  The drug addicts come out after midnight and wander around the neighborhood looking for things to steal.

Though these drug addicts wandering the streets at night in Dickinson attract the attention of the Police, what are the Police going to do besides asking them a few questions about what they are doing and where they are going?  The way that Dickinson is now, probably 25% of the people living downtown have had a drug conviction in the past.  With all these drug addicts walking the streets after midnight, each claiming that they are going somewhere, what are the Police going to do?

There Are White Trash In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I have lived in Dickinson, North Dakota for a little over five years now.  Financially, sometimes I have had a shortfall of money, most of the time I was just keeping up with bills, and only a few times did it appear as though I was going to get a little bit ahead.

For the past three years, I have often felt that all I ever do is just pay bills.  Even though I was tired of doing nothing but paying bills, I came to look forward to being able to pay for everything, as if this was a fun and enjoyable thing to do.

Without fail during the past five years, I would unexpectedly have to spend money for visits to a dentist, visits to a doctor, have a vehicle repaired, or have a high income tax bill due to an $800 Obamacare penalty or something.

One more unexpected thing that got me down, was when one of my vehicles was stolen this past summer in Dickinson.  This was partly due to me moving to a poorer neighborhood in downtown Dickinson.  Although my stolen vehicle was found several weeks later, I was missing $2,000 in tools and property from this vehicle.

In this downtown neighborhood in Dickinson, my neighbors had things stolen out of their vehicles and had attempted break-ins into their vehicles this summer, fall, and winter.  There were stoned and high people in this neighborhood, sitting out on their balconies, passed out in the stairwell, resisting arrest with the police, and crashing into things with their vehicles.

Yesterday evening, when I was working out of town, where I normally park my vehicle when I am home, someone crashed into and took out about 150 feet of chain link fence.  This is the third time that this has happened in this neighborhood in the last six months, plus one vehicle that crashed into my equipment trailer.

The street beside where I live, is a straight residential two-lane road where the speed limit is 25 mph.  I don’t see how people manage to get up over the curb, onto a ten foot wide grass strip, and then take out the chain link fence along the canal.  On Thursday evening, someone did this, the chain link fence got attached to their vehicle bumper when they drove through it, they kept going, towing the fence behind them, turning back onto the street, crossing over the street, and onto people’s front yards on the other side of the street.

I am unhappy and upset about this.  Downtown Dickinson is so chock-full of White Trash, that it is a regular thing to have your vehicle stolen, broken into, or crashed into.  I am already upset that I have to drive to Idaho next week to have melanoma mole removed because they can’t do this in North Dakota.   I am not looking forward to the 12 hour drive one way, plus the cost of everything.  I would have been much more upset if the vehicle that I needed to use to get to Idaho in three days was destroyed last night where it is normally parked.

The point that I want to make is this, there are so many White Trash in Dickinson, that you can expect to have your property stolen, your vehicle stolen, your vehicle broken into, your home broken into, your vehicle crashed into, to where any gains that you make in obtaining a good vehicle, paying for vehicle repairs, buying tools or equipment that you need, or furnishing your home will be wiped out by the drug addicts and White Trash in Dickinson, North Dakota.