Southside Saloon burglarized

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Curtis Haider, owner of Southside Saloon in Dickinson, pours a beer for a customer at the business Wednesday. The saloon was burglarized Tuesday morning. Press Photo by Ashley Martin

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A burglar or burglars broke into the Southside Saloon in Dickinson Tuesday morning, damaged equipment and stole cash, according to the Dickinson Police Department.

A 20 pack of beer, two cases of whisky and cigarettes were also stolen, said Curtis Haider, owner.

Entry was gained by drilling a hole through a window in the east door of the business, said DPD Detective Kylan Klauzer.

“They drilled the hole through my door and then were able to get the latch open,” Haider said. “They had pulled both of the electric meters off in the back to cut power off.”

He said no damage was done to the meters, but two gaming machines and a jukebox were damaged and cash was stolen from them.

“I don’t know what extent the damage is to them,” Haider said.

Stolen items and damages add up to about $1,000, Haider said.

“That’s not counting the jukebox or the pull tab machines,” Haider said. “In reality, this is going to end up costing me a lot more because I’m going to end up putting security in here.

“People just don’t realize for the little bit of money they get out of here, what it costs the owner.”

He plans to install cameras and alarms.

Manager Fay Young said when she turned the lights on Tuesday morning she realized the place had been burglarized.

“My first thought was ‘Are they still in the bar?’ so I went outside,” Young said.

She then called authorities and Haider.

Though he is upset over the incident, he feels lucky the burglar or burglars didn’t do more damage.

“What can you do about it? You bite the bullet and you keep going on,” Haider said.

The burglary took place between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m., according to the police report.

“I do have some suspects for this,” Klauzer said. “We’ll be following up on it.”

No charges have been filed and no arrests have been made.

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