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Submitted Story

Real Life Story - Dover, NH

Posted 5 months ago by Jeff Eldridge

I didn’t know how to share this with the folks at the Responsibility Project, but I’ve got a real life story that just happened last week in Dover, NH. An average citizen saw something that wasn’t right, and took responsibility himself. As it turns out, his actions more than likely derailed a very bad situation with three young teen-age girls. This was one newspaper follow up on this incident, but there are lots more stories from newspapers, as well as TV websites. Let me know if you need any additional direction as to where to get more information, but I just thought credit should be given to this particular individual for not just turning his head and driving away. Perhaps Liberty could even recognize him publicly?

Dad believes he threw a wrench into man’s plans

By AARON SANBORN
asanborn@fosters.com

Article Date: Saturday, March 22, 2008
DOVER — Troy Smith says he is certain something bad would have happened if he didn’t confront Ronald J.E. Dann on Tuesday afternoon.

Smith said it wasn’t right the way Dann drove by three middle-school aged girls walking home from school on Locust Street. So Smith pulled his vehicle up to Dann’s vehicle and confronted him. A fight eventually ensued, and when police arrived Smith had Dann pinned on the ground.

A subsequent search of Dann’s vehicle yielded the discovery of three knives and two homemade weapons. Dann, 56, last known address of 10 Lincoln St., Dover, was arrested and charged with felon in possession of a dangerous weapon.

During an interview from his Dover home, Smith said he is happy Dann is now in jail but said additional charges are needed because he believed Dann was up to no good.

“It was definitely something that wasn’t right,” Smith said. “Why was a 56-year-old man driving on the wrong side of the road to follow those girls, and with weapons in his vehicle?”

Smith said he first noticed Dann when he pulled out of the Locust Street Shell Station and drive down the wrong side of the road. Down the road, Dann began to follow the girls, who were walking home from the Dover Middle School.

There were four occasions where Dann pulled up to the girls and as the girls moved away a few feet, he would pull up to them again, Smith said. Finally, Smith said he’d seen enough and turned around in a parking lot so he could face Dann’s vehicle.

“I was waiting for the girls to reach my car so I could see if they were OK or if they knew him,” Smith said.

As the girls approached Smith’s car, Dann moved his car up to Smith’s car.

“The girls said they didn’t know who he was and they were crying,” Smith said.

At that point both men got out of their vehicles.

Smith confronted Dann and asked him what he was doing but instead of getting an answer, he got a face full of Dann.

“He got in my face and started screaming. He was telling me ‘to get out of here’ and that ‘it was none of my business,’” Smith said. “Eventually he put his hands on me and I shoved him.”

They pushed each other back and forth a few times before Dann attempted to reach into his car. Smith slammed Dann’s car door and shoved him back to the ground.

“There was no doubt in my mind why he was reaching into the car,” Smith said, adding he had a feeling weapons may have been in the vehicle.

Spread throughout the car were three knives and modified tools, including the head of a ball-peen hammer attached to a long piece of rawhide, similar to a mace, and a short-handled hammer, which were later found by police.

Smith used his body weight to hold Dann to the ground until police arrived. Police, who were summoned by another passer-by, eventually searched Dann’s car and removed the weapons.

“Once the girls saw what was taken out of the vehicle, they were thanking me,” Smith said. “I’m just glad I broke up his plan, and he didn’t go where he wanted to go.”

Police say they also removed a pair of binoculars from Dann’s vehicle.

Smith, who has three children, said he didn’t expect his encounter with Dann to become confrontational but said he was just very angered by Dann’s actions.

“I was very, very mad. Even when police came, I was very hostile,” Smith said. “I was just so mad someone would do this; follow children home.”

Because of the danger he believed Dann posed to the girls, Smith said he couldn’t just call police and wait.

“If I had just driven by and found out the following day that something had happened to those girls, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself,” he said.

He added that if one of his children was in a similar situation, he would hope someone else would do the same thing.

“People in this community need to know that this stuff can happen, kids can get hurt,” Smith said. “People need to be alert to this sort of thing.”

Police say Dann never gave them a reason for having the weapons and are continuing to investigate whether further charges will be filed. Dann is being held at the county jail on $2,000 cash bail. He is scheduled to appear in court again on April 1 at 9 a.m. for a probable cause hearing.

Comments [

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1. Fortunate

   I believe the young man with the laptop was extremely fortunate. In today's society unfortunately, he would have been hard pressed to find three separate individuals who would have followed through by either refusing to leave without first finding someone else to watch his things, or with the last woman, actually ask for identification before allowing the young man to sit at the table and begin touching the things. I would have bet the first woman would have walked away within 30 minutes...

   4 months, 4 weeks ago In response to Table Guardians

Define what responsibility means to you.