Bob Collins
A Fargo second-hand store owner isn’t happy about those people next door, Valley News Live reports.
Shannon Grindberg has posted the sign next door to the Gladys Ray Shelter on 1st Avenue South, which recently closed because Fargo didn’t renew a license to operate. Grindberg, who has a theft conviction on his record, isn’t talking.
One neighbor told the TV station that beer cans are strewn outside the shelter, along with the occasional passed-out client.
Other neighbors aren’t happy with Grindberg.
“If you’re having an issue, instead of doing the sign, talk to someone there, talk to your chamber of commerce, city hall. Go through the channels instead of being an idiot,” neighbor, Monica Killingsworth said.
Neighboring Moorhead, Minn., isn’t happy with Grindberg either.
This week, the City Council in Moorhead told Grindberg it doesn’t want him in town, denying him a license on a 5-to-3 vote, the Fargo Forum reports.
Secondhand goods stores are often a place for criminals to dump stolen items, City Attorney John Shockley said. In early 2014, Grindberg bought items for $200 that turned out to have been looted from a storage unit, according to a Fargo police report.
A Fargo police detective went to Phat Kat and asked Grindberg about the items; Grindberg denied having them. The rightful owner of the items then went to Grindberg and purchased the items for $220, police said.
Grindberg told the council he did not know the items he bought were stolen, and that he lied to a police detective because she never properly identified herself. He also called the sale of the items to the rightful owner a “reimbursement” that was freely and mutually agreed upon.
“All I would ask is give him a chance,” Grindberg’s father pleaded to the Council.
Meanwhile, over in Fargo, the shelter had no comment about the sign.
(h/t: Ann Arbor Miller)
