The Beauty Shop Bandit of Toko-ri
20 years old + private rank + out past curfew + only a week left in country = trouble:
A 2nd Infantry Division soldier was questioned by police who suspect he was involved in an early-morning fire Saturday at an off-post beauty shop near Camp Hovey in Dongducheon.
Pvt. Dustin T. Roper, 20, of 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry’s headquarters company, was found in an alley after firefighters responded to a fire at the Royal beauty shop at 3:55 a.m. Saturday.
Roper remained silent during questioning, a Yangju police spokesman said.
The statistical category that causes the most trouble in USFK are 18-22 year olds, within the rank of E1-E4, and either under 30 days in country or under 30 days left to leave. The guys under 30 days get in trouble because they come to Korea and think they can drink up storm and raise hell in the ville. The longer they are in Korea and see people getting brought up on charges for misconduct tends to moderate their behavior. Additionally the ville just gets old and soldiers start doing other things besides going to the ville.  Â
Then you have the guys that under 30 days that often lose leader supervision because they are released during the day to clear their unit and installation. These are the guys you really have to watch. Often these guys want to go out and raise hell one last time before they leave. Additionally if this soldier spent a year in Korea and is only a private that leads me to believe he probably got busted in rank while in Korea.Â
This guy does appear to be a classic example of a high risk soldier that are the main causes off post incidents if he in fact started the fire.Â
[…] Drop: The Beauty Shop Bandit of Toko-riPosted 14 hours ago20 years old + private rank + out past curfew + only a week left in country = […]
[…] [GI Korea] The Beauty Shop Bandit of Toko-ri Published: Tue, 22 May 2007 08:59:57 +0000 20 years old + private rank + out past curfew + only a week left in country = trouble: A 2nd Infantry Division soldier was questioned by police who suspect he was involved in an early-morning fire Saturday at an off-post beauty shop near Camp Hovey in Dongducheon. Pvt. Dustin T. Roper, 20, of 2nd Battalion, 9th […] Read More… […]
18 – 22 year olds will almst always have the highest criminal detention rate in any society. Did he get a bad haircut? Did he even start the fire?
[…] Beauty Shop Bandit of Toko-ri / MAY07 – 1 Hovey Soldier […]
heh another one of my 2-9HHC people in trouble. This was my best friend in korea. Hope he is doing well.
Intersting. I was at Casey in the early 70's. The ville got old real quick, and I found other things to do on my free time, like smoke pot, which was everywhere and cheap. There was a lot of looking the other way among officers and NCOs regarding marijuana usage, and pot smokers were rarely busted. But, we tended to avoid excessive alcohol consumption, and rarely got involved in troublesome incidents on or off post. Those who raised hell and caused trouble were definately in the newbie/shortimer category, and always fueled by alcohol. I was a company clerk and processed the article 15's in the company and that was the case then as it apparently is now. It was a different time and a different Army.
[…] This story was actually reported back in May by the Stars & Stripes and subsequently posted here as well. This case I seriously doubt it is a cover up by the Korean police and more likely not […]
[…] video’s got a lot of “thumbs up” from Korean netizens. Read more (in Korean) here or at ROK Drop here and here. Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/04/2007 08:03PM by Mongdori. […]
[…] of destruction of private property and trespassing. ROK Drop readers may remember Roper as the Beauty Shop Bandit who also received a beat down in the Dongducheon 2nd Market area as well as being the reason behind […]
That’s my uncle
Did he ever tell you if he started the fire or not?