By Zack Newman, The Colorado Sun | When Bret Dallas went to the shed outside of his Lakewood home to follow his routine and lift weights one October morning, the 46-year-old could not believe what he saw. Or didn’t see. “I felt like I got hit in the gut,” Dallas said. “Because I just opened my shed and there was just empty space where everything used to be.”
Dallas has spent at least 10 years performing on the streets of Denver. In that shed were all of his tools of the busking trade including thousands of dollars worth of electric guitars, speakers and pedals. The incident reports from the Lakewood Police Department also listed stolen bikes and tools.
It was all gone. Dallas said he saw one of the shed’s side doors flailing in the wind — completely open.
“I just dropped to my knees and I just started crying,” Dallas said. “Like I could not believe this. I mean, it’s just — the amount of loss that I experienced in that moment, I just can’t, I can’t begin to describe.”
Dallas is one of the thousands of Coloradans who reported similar crimes from 2014 to 2024, according to a Colorado Sun analysis of Colorado Department of Public Safety data.
But, few cases are solved. Of the 351,283 burglary and theft from building cases, 15% have been cleared. (A clearance can include an arrest or another condition like the death of an offender or a victim that decided not to cooperate with police.)
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Go here to read how Dallas got his stuff back – but the warning that he took a big RISK:
https://coloradosun.com/2025/12/03/colorado-burglary-data-lakewood-musician/
NOTE: Mr. Dallas has agreed to speak at our February 23, 2026 meeting. He’ll tell you what all he went through to get his stolen items back. Put it on your calendar now!