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Has anyone seen a spike in crime in their area this past summer? Our whole state has a very low crime rate, but I'm just wondering what ours will look like in the near future. Here are just a few of the worst things that have happened within the past two months~
Someone broke into a camper at the campgrounds by the Lake. They assaulted a woman and she fought him off and he ran away. That same morning, he went into a tent where a young girl was and tried to rape her. Again, he was fought off. He has never been caught.
We had an armed bank robbery. They believe it's possible that it's the same person who had just robbed a Sx. Falls bank a day or two before.
One of our convenience stores was robbed twice in one month. They had originally wondered if the cashier wasn't involved, but the second robbery occurred when the manager was on duty. Again~no one was caught.
Four business places were broken in to the same morning.
One of our restaurants had the window broken and the cash drawer was stolen.
Sunday we went up to the State Fair for a few hours. When we got home, two policemen were directing a wrecker kitty corner across the street from us. Our neighbor was on vacation and they were towing a car out of his garage. (Sort of a lean to. It's enclosed on three sides with an arched, open doorway. He's handicapped and didn't wanna mess with a door) The car had been stolen and someone just parked it in his garage. Today we learned the stolen car belonged to George McGovern. He lives a few blocks from here.
Our next door neighbor had their car stolen from Chef Louie's (steakhouse) the middle of August and they haven't heard a word about it. It's never been recovered.
On top of that, there's been the usual small crime that has always been here.
Spike in crime? Based on 25+ years experience in the counties around Mitchell I don't think so.
There have always been periodic "flaps" of business/home burglaries, vandalism, and smash and grabs from automobiles. Now and again there's a hold-up at a bank or convenience store. Usually [Other than the hold-ups which tend to be "passers through" on I-90.] it's a group of locals, one of them eventually brags about his or her exploits, gets caught, and ends up ratting on the others, and things are resolved.
What generally surprises me is how little crime there is, given our proximity to I-90 and the transient population passing by/through town.
Also, keep in mind we've got a pretty aggressive newspaper so the reporting of these incidents is perhaps a bit more complete than it used to be.
I havent noticed changes - I agree... normal ups and downs of cyclic patterns. I think alot is based on the media and there reports... sometimes the "bad" things get the press leaving the public to believe there has been an increase in crime, when it is not really the case.
Crime tends to fluctuate from time to time in South Dakota. Just yesterday, I heard about a man who beat a 90 year old woman, stole her car, and then left her for dead just outside of Rapid City!!
Other days I hear of absolutely NO CRIME on the news!
Rapid City is often referred to as Rape-a-city due to the high rape and assault reports, but sometimes you will hear of nothing. I'm sure it's the same in every South Dakotan and midwestern city.
Crime is not nearly as bad here as it is anywhere else though!!! Thank God!
I live in Palm Coast Florida, between Daytona and St. Augustine. For two years running, Flagler County was considered the fastest growing county in the country so lots of people moved here (including me, but only because of a job opp).
Housing prices shot up but sooooo many people bought homes hoping to flip them that there are tons of nice 200K + houses for rent for maybe $850 a month. The next thing you know, many low rent, illegals, and gangs moved in and crime is through the roof.
I've been to the Black Hills about a dozen times since '88 and I've dreamed of living there for so long, I think I'm just going to leave all this behind and "head to the hills". I'm a construction/project manager here but now that the real estate market dried up, I need to go to a new place anyway. Hopefully, I'll be out there in '08.
Dreams, you're right~our crime is NOTHING compared to many places, including Florida. But you've given me the chance to do a bit of updating. They believe they have the gent who robbed the Mitchell and Sx. Falls banks. He also robbed one in Mn. and they believe that's where he resides. They had been looking for a car with Mn. plates after the local robberies.
The campground troublemaker has never been caught and there have been no more occurences. In all honesty, he may just have been a drifter passing through.
We've had a bit of arson going on here, but they feel they have it narrowed down and the person would be of no harm to the property of others. Things have calmed down so it may have just been a summer spike.
I really hope that you can move to the Hills cause it is a beautiful area and you sound like you'd be a good resident since you love it there. I have family in Fla. so I follow a bit of the happenings down there. Although it's beautiful there, it is an entirely different world crime wise, financially, demographics, etc. There should be more then enough employment up here for you.
Thanks Jammie! I hope to be there soon. I've been sending resume's out to the larger projects in the area but I think I may just have to fly out for a few days and take a look around and meet people in person to see if there is anything for me.
As for crime in Florida, it is out of control. Here in Palm Coast, there are gangs and home invasions almost every week. I just finished a 75 million dollar condo on the beach. The furnishings are beautiful but within the first week, someone walked out with a HUGE painting. And by huge, I mean there is no way it would have fit in a car, it was maybe 6' X 6'! Of course, nobody saw a thing....
You'll be pleasantly surprised and happy here. We have been so close to being nearly crime-free for so long that just a bit of crime seems awful to us. We're actually well below the national average~probably HALF of the national average for crime. MOST of the people from here still look out for their neighbors so an incident like you're describing would be very rare here. Generally somebody sees something and most of us will still speak up.
You're probably right. You may just have to fly out and search in person. The problem will be that you won't want to go back home after you get here.
From living in SD for 25 years, I think South Dakota as a whole is a very safe place where one does not have to worry. I sometimes visit other parts of the nation and hear what my relatives or others outside of South Dakota say of their areas and crimes going on in their areas. After hear that, I often feel thankful to live in a caring, peaceful, and safe area of the country. If a crime in occurs in a small town, almost everyone in that small town will know about it.
There is nothing like south dakota.If I can descibe South Dakota ,I would say that it is the most laid back state in the union and also the most stress free.Nothing like going out in the middle of the night,down by the river, in the summer time and looking at the stars.It is always so clear.I could stare at them for hours and not have to worry about a glare of city lights making a reflection on the sky.We definitely have it made here.
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Nothing New...
Can't be as bad as Florida
