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Central Alberta rural crime fighter who was honoured by RCMP dies

A longtime crime fighter who was honoured by the Innisfail RCMP has died.
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Dick Foesier was passionate about helping people. He was honoured by the Innisfail RCMP for his crime-fighting efforts in 2016. File photo

A longtime crime fighter who was honoured by the Innisfail RCMP has died.

Dick Foesier was passionate about helping people. That’s how friend Fred Grono describes the 75 year old, who died Oct. 2.

“He liked helping people. That’s how I’ll remember Dick,” said Grono.

“If someone came to his yard, and his vehicle needed fixing or whatever, he would fix it. People needed a voice, he would be that voice.

“His goal in life was just to help people, because that’s what he loved to do. And he loved the feeling he got from helping people.”

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Rural crime fighter honoured

Foesier started as a crime watcher before joining the Raven Rural Crime Watch in the early 1990s, and later served as president.

About 30 years later, in 2016, he was honoured by the Innisfail RCMP for his three decades of crime-fighting service. He was awarded a certificate of appreciation for his involvement in rural crime watch.

“It caught me by surprise,” Foesier told the Advocate at the time. “I didn’t know anything about it and didn’t realize it had been 30 years. It brought a tear to my eye.”

As a crime watch member, he was the ears and eyes of the police department. He stayed in touch with officers, giving them tips about what was going on in the neighbourhood, said Grono, the vice-president of the Raven Rural Crime Watch group.

“There was barely a night went by where he wasn’t doing some patrolling of some sort,” said the Red Deer County resident.

He was someone who joked around, enjoyed a good laugh, and if he was able to stop any property crimes, along with his crime-fighting colleagues, that made our night even better, Grono said.

The 64-year-old said crime has gotten worse in recent years. Some of the most concerning crimes in the Spruce View area are vehicle theft and property crimes, including break and enters.

People are afraid to leave their homes, because they don’t know if they will come back to their home or an empty house, said Grono.

He pointed to many factors for the increase in crime, including the economy, drug addiction and a broken justice system.

“Any punishment is just a slap on the wrist, if that, and the prosecutors are so busy, so these criminals know there is no deterrant.

“They are out there doing whatever they want to do. Police arrest them, and the next day, they’re out on the road on bail, or promise to appear in court, and most of them don’t do that,” said Grono.



mamta.lulla@reddeeradvocate.com

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