Brattleboro Dawn Dances

Thefts at the Labor Day Dawn Dance

September 4th, 2013 1:22 pm

We’re sorry to report that the Brattleboro Dawn Dance has had its first known incidence of theft in our memory. During the Labor Day dance an individual who is not a member of the dance community entered the hall and took several wallets and phones. As of Tuesday, September 3, the suspect has been arrested and arraigned and will stand trial at a future date.

We want to provide some information about the thefts so the dance community can be clear about what happened. The suspect entered the hall early in the dance. He did not buy a ticket. Dawn Dance volunteers noticed him near the stairwell where dancers store belongings, thought his behavior looked suspicious, and confronted him. He said he was looking for his backpack and gave what turned out to be a fake name and number to call if it was found. He left the dance soon afterwards.

Around 1:00 am a dancer reported a missing wallet. At that point we weren’t sure a theft had taken place, so the caller made an announcement that it was missing. When a second wallet was reported missing a volunteer called the police, who arrived around 2:00 am and did a walkthrough of the building. Around 3:00 am a Dawn Dance Committee member noticed the same man in the building. When confronted he again claimed to be looking for his backpack and soon left the building.

During the early morning set, as more items were reported missing, the committee called the police again. The caller announced that items had been stolen and asked people with missing belongings to provide details to the police. At the end of the dance the police were present and took information from those with missing items and a description of the suspect from witnesses. On Monday one of our Committee members identified a photo of the suspect. The suspect has since been arrested and a number of phones recovered. On Tuesday September 3rd he was arraigned; one member of the Dawn Dance committee and two volunteers are on the witness list to testify at the trial.

As a Committee we are saddened and frustrated that these thefts took place at the Dawn Dance. We hope that everyone’s belongings will be recovered and returned to them. We will continue to work with the Brattleboro Police in any way that we can. We share the sense of surprise that this could happen here; like many people in the dance community we assume that our fellow dancers are trustworthy and generally treat dance events as safe spaces. We hope that everyone will keep in mind that the suspected thief was not a member of this community, but someone known to the local police with a long criminal history.

The Dawn Dance Committee is an all-volunteer organization, and during the dance our attention is focused on maintaining the safety and comfort of the dance hall, selling tickets, ensuring compliance with various town regulations and codes, and other logistics. The Gibson Aiken center is a public building; there are many entries and exits and a lot of traffic through the building. We do our best to limit access to people who have purchased tickets, but we cannot take responsibility for guarding everyone’s belongings. In the future, we recommend that dancers secure valuables in a locked car or on your person as much as possible. The Dawn Dance community is still the welcoming and safe group that we’ve always been; we just need to take the same precautions in keeping our possessions safe as we would in other public settings.

We are sure that these events will spur a lot of useful discussion in our community. As always, we welcome your thoughts and feedback, and you can reach us on Facebook or by email at .

The Dawn Dance Committee

Louisa, Mary, Hal, Chelsea, Marguerite, Sam, Ethan, Cedar

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