{"id":26502,"date":"2026-04-25T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=26502"},"modified":"2026-04-25T10:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T15:23:14","slug":"drayton-man-sentenced-in-pipe-theft-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/drayton-man-sentenced-in-pipe-theft-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Drayton Man Sentenced In Pipe Theft Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennington County<\/strong> (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 Robert Fred Fish, 31, of Drayton, North Dakota, has been sentenced in a felony theft case involving stolen irrigation pipe.<\/p>\n

Fish was sentenced for aiding and abetting felony theft over $5,000. The sentence was handled under Minnesota Statute 609.135<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fish received a five-year stay of imposition. He was ordered to serve 13 months in prison, stayed for five years. That sentence will run at the same time as another case.<\/p>\n

He was also placed on supervised probation for five years.<\/p>\n

Sentence Includes Drug Court<\/h2>\n

As part of the sentence, Fish must complete a comprehensive assessment within 60 days. He must also follow all treatment and aftercare recommendations.<\/p>\n

Fish was ordered to enroll in and complete Drug Court. He cannot use or possess firearms, dangerous weapons, or ammunition while on probation.<\/p>\n

He was also ordered to provide a DNA sample. Court records show he must pay $210 in fees and fines.<\/p>\n

\"Robert
Robert Fred Fish, Richard William Paulson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pipe Theft Reported Near Highway 32<\/h2>\n

The case began with a report to the Pennington County Sheriff\u2019s Office on Aug. 27.<\/p>\n

A man reported that people were stealing aluminum irrigation pipes from property near 120th Street Southeast and Highway 32.<\/p>\n

The man said grass on the property had been packed down. He also noticed a road area appeared to have been mowed.<\/p>\n

Later, two vehicles were seen traveling down the driveway. The property owner then saw Richard William Paulson leaving in a Jeep.<\/p>\n

Paulson reportedly said he had been fishing there for years. He also said he had a van left on the property.<\/p>\n

After Paulson left, the owner noticed irrigation pipes were missing.<\/p>\n

Scrap Sales Led Investigators To Suspects<\/h2>\n

Investigators later found pipe sections on a semi trailer. They also found a van with North Dakota plates and a homemade trailer.<\/p>\n

About 25 pipe sections were on the trailer. About five more were on the ground.<\/p>\n

The owner estimated that two-thirds or more of the pipes were missing.<\/p>\n

Authorities later reviewed information from Evans Scrap and Steel. An employee said Paulson and another man had brought pipe to the business.<\/p>\n

Facebook messages also showed Paulson discussing pipe sales, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

Security footage showed Fish arriving at the business on Aug. 25. He was driving a Chevy Tahoe with the same homemade trailer found on the property.<\/p>\n

Across five transactions, stolen pipe was sold for more than $1,770. Investigators later valued the pipe between $10,900 and $16,350.<\/p>\n

Paulson later told an investigator that he and Fish were both involved. He said they split the money.<\/p>\n

Paulson has also been sentenced for his role in the case.<\/p>\n

I’m Chris Harper reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pennington County (trfnews.i234.me) \u2014 Robert Fred Fish, 31, of Drayton, North Dakota, has been sentenced in a felony theft case involving stolen irrigation pipe. Fish was sentenced for aiding and abetting felony theft over $5,000. The sentence was handled under Minnesota Statute 609.135. Fish received a five-year stay of imposition. He was ordered to serve… Continue reading Drayton Man Sentenced In Pipe Theft Case<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[16726,16722,14871,16723,16725,16724,16727],"class_list":["post-26502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-aluminum-pipe-theft","tag-drayton-man-sentenced","tag-minnesota-court-news","tag-pennington-county-theft","tag-richard-william-paulson","tag-robert-fred-fish","tag-thief-river-falls-crime","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26502"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26719,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26502\/revisions\/26719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}