$5,000 in furniture, TV equipment stolen from Bemidji store

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

April 8, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

About $5,000 in furniture and television equipment was reported stolen from United Sleep Center, a furniture store at 310 Railroad St., in a weekend break-in, according to the Bemidji Police Department.

Sgt. Jeff Sladky said Monday that United Sleep Center owner William Rice contacted the department Sunday after having been contacted by the Red Lake Police Department about an abandoned United Sleep Center truck.

The truck was found abandoned and running on the Red Lake Reservation about mid-morning Sunday, according to Sladky, and Red Lake police contacted the owner of the truck, who is also Rice.

Rice went to the store and found that someone had broken into the business the night before, located the keys to the truck, loaded it with furniture and left. The truck was empty when found by Red Lake police, Sladky said, and the furniture has not been recovered.

The truck was returned without damage, but still missing is about $5,000 in furniture, including two Franklin recliners, two oak end tables, a 52-inch Panasonic television, a 25-inch Sony television, a VCR of unidentified make and model, two glider-style rocking chairs, an oak dresser and a Campbell Housted air compressor.

Sladky said the break-in occurred sometime Saturday night, and the incident is under investigation.

It is the second recent burglary in the North Lake Irving area, he added. The first was at a Dewey Furniture warehouse.