Violence in Wyoming? (Cheyenne, Rock Springs: insurance, crime rate, lawyers)

[jody_wy]

had a few families move here from Pennsylvania when the dairy industry was still kicking more then one leg , there a few more that moved here just for the hunting

[Wyomama2]

Mystiquewriter- If you fly into Wyoming I suggest Cheyenne, I rented a car from the Rock Springs airport and paid $135 for one day for a full size. I think the weekly rate is around $550 or so. The rentals in Denver are a lot cheaper and with the new toll road it's only about a 2 hour drive and it's a pretty one, you would get to see the Rockies. Also, you would avoid what we refer to as "the upchuck flight" around here, experienced when flying from or to Denver from anywhere in Wyoming.

[SkunkApe]

Heh. Upchuck flight. I always called it "The Vomit Comet."

[Count David]

Originally Posted by Wyomama2

Mystiquewriter- If you fly into Wyoming I suggest Cheyenne, I rented a car from the Rock Springs airport and paid $135 for one day for a full size. I think the weekly rate is around $550 or so.

WOW! I recently paid $170 for a week's use of a full-size rental car in a major city. OP, make sure you shop around!

[ElkHunter]

I've found that when it comes to rental cars, the smaller airports have them available, but it's so much plus milage. With the bigger airports, it's a flat daily charge, miles don't count. When I was doing projects for the GOV, I would fly into Denver and get a rental and drive to Sheridan. It was cheaper then flying to Sheridan and getting a rental.

As to crime, I did want to chime in on Sheridan area. In the past couple years, we've actually had a couple of murders. One was particularly disturbing.

In the past, we've had a murder here and there. Every time it was a spouse in a domestic case, or it was a boyfriend/girlfriend type of deal. But last year we had an actual break in that resulted in a murder. In the 40 plus years that I've been associated with Sheridan and Sheridan county, that's the first time I've ever encountered such a thing. It was disturbing to a lot of folks because we just don't have that sort of thing happening around here. 3 guy's broke into a home to rob it, woke up the resident and in a panic shot him. NOT a normal thing.

The second one was roomates and a drug deal. Again, that is something that doesn't happen around here, or at least something that hasn't happened before.

We have people in jail for "Failure to appear, DUI, Domestic Violance and even a few drug type charges", but never something like we've encountered in the last year or so. I used to work in the Jail and I'm sure they were dumb founded and wondered what to do with this type of inmate, simply because it just doesn't happen normally. Which is a good thing.

[FlyiMetro]

Originally Posted by WyoNewk

The most violence that I can recall ever seeing was 30 years ago when some guy who had been fired from a dirt-moving crew got drunk, then climbed aboard his former company's D9 Caterpillar at 2 a.m. and decided to take a 30-minute cruise through town, driving over a couple parked cars and a few utility poles in the process.

I heard it clanking down the streets, every now and then sparks lighting the sky as the utility poles went down. I thought we were being invaded by South Dakota (but later learned its tank battalion consisted of septic tanks).

The guy drove down the street in front of my house, then bailed in the darkness, and the giant driverless dozer landed in a basement apartment a block away. Luckily, no one was hurt.

DUDE!! Thats awesome!!! Real cool story man.

[Ibuiltmine]

[Mod cut] This is the worse thing that's happened in Cheyenne for a while. Cold blooded execution. The 2nd chick begged for her life for 17 min before he shot her in the head. Fny thing is is I worked at this house, and the people there seemed like normal people.

[wybadger]

we live in a very small town right outside a larger town and this past Labor Day we went to Utah for 3 days. Left the front door open and back door open cause we didn't want to come home to a hot house. Everything was as we left it when we got home. It's amusing and satisfying at the same time. However, don't leave a case of beer in the back of your truck, because that will definately disappear.

[jackaroo1223]

There have been a couple random murders this year (and I'm not talking about the grizz in yellowstone gnawing on some tourists who were foolish enough to not bring bear spray with them!)

I live in Douglas, and there was a woman was found dead in her apartment a couple weeks ago, it is believed to be a homicide. There was a NRCS worker in Newcastle who was murdered, but last I heard they believe it had something to do with her divorce and the life she left behind in Texas.

There was a shooting in Wheatland, and one in Cheyenne too.

I have my own theory behind it. Some people come to Wyoming because they are hiding or running from something and they for some reason feel Wyoming is the place to reinvent themselves. This seems to be the case with the homicide in Douglas and Newcastle. Their pasts caught up with them, it had nothing to do with Wyoming except it caught them here.

I also believe the boom is behind crime increases. You bring a bunch of young, male industry workers to Wyoming from places like Texas, Oklahoma, etc, plunk them in a small town that doesn't have much to do, and they get bored or they had previous criminal offenses and hadn't learned from those experiences. In Douglas recently I've seen a lot of Texas plates with young Hispanic male drivers- definitley not typical of Douglas, likely here to work on oil/gas/coal.

That being said, crime is still extremely low. I leave my truck and house unlocked most of the time, as do many people I know. And I live behind a bar!

[Ibuiltmine]

Originally Posted by jackaroo1223

There have been a couple random murders this year (and I'm not talking about the grizz in yellowstone gnawing on some tourists who were foolish enough to not bring bear spray with them!)

I live in Douglas, and there was a woman was found dead in her apartment a couple weeks ago, it is believed to be a homicide. There was a NRCS worker in Newcastle who was murdered, but last I heard they believe it had something to do with her divorce and the life she left behind in Texas.

There was a shooting in Wheatland, and one in Cheyenne too.

I have my own theory behind it. Some people come to Wyoming because they are hiding or running from something and they for some reason feel Wyoming is the place to reinvent themselves. This seems to be the case with the homicide in Douglas and Newcastle. Their pasts caught up with them, it had nothing to do with Wyoming except it caught them here.

I also believe the boom is behind crime increases. You bring a bunch of young, male industry workers to Wyoming from places like Texas, Oklahoma, etc, plunk them in a small town that doesn't have much to do, and they get bored or they had previous criminal offenses and hadn't learned from those experiences. In Douglas recently I've seen a lot of Texas plates with young Hispanic male drivers- definitley not typical of Douglas, likely here to work on oil/gas/coal.

That being said, crime is still extremely low. I leave my truck and house unlocked most of the time, as do many people I know. And I live behind a bar!

you make a very valid point. Theres something to be said about the seclusion in a state that has a total population that is smaller then most states city's. Someone coming from a 1 million plus size city to a town like wheatland with only a few thousand people feel like they are roughing it out in the middle of nowhere. (sidenote - wheatland Inn has the best chickenfried steak I have ever ate!)