Visiting Sherwood Anderson’s neighborhood and Dumpster Don

“Vandals leave 'Dumpster Don' out in the cold

By JASON SINGER   Monday, March 15, 2010 1:25 AM EDT

SANDUSKY

The forest reeked of gasoline.

Beside the plywood shanty, an empty bottle of Tiki Torch fuel lay in the mostly melted snow.

Don Dezanett picked up his blankets one by one, held them to his face and breathed in. He tossed them aside in disgust.

"They're all ruined!" he said. "You can't get that smell out. They're all ruined. Why would someone do this?"

His eyes watered behind his glasses. The bulging veins under his skin looked like ropes under a leathery canvas as he became angry and worried for his safety.

"I can't even sleep in there," he said. "One match, and this thing goes like that (he snaps his fingers). It'll burn up, and I'll be gone, and nobody will ever notice. Nobody will even care."

The ruined shanty capped a tumultuous weekend for the man Sanduskians call "Dumpster Don."

Last Saturday Sandusky police arrested him for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest near the west-side railroad tracks where he lives.

According to the police report, someone called the department and said Don "was punching mailboxes and acting intoxicated."

Officer James DeSalle wrote in his report that when he arrived at the scene, Don appeared to intoxicated and was urinating in the trees.

"A very strong odor of intoxicates was detected coming from his person," DeSalle wrote in the report. "His speech was slurred, and his eyes were bloodshot and glassy."

Don conceded he drank too much, but denied punching mailboxes. He said his hand, which he broke last year in a bike crash, would prevent him from doing so.

"I was celebrating because I finally got some funds," he said, referring to the fact that last month he qualified for disability pay. Don suffers from inflammatory arthritis, which has been exacerbated by his homelessness.

"I knew I drank too much and was coming back here to sleep it off," he said. "I shouldn't have been arrested."

After he was taken to the Erie County jail, Don became belligerent, police said. According to statements from three correctional officers, Don became "uncooperative," and they placed him in a restraint chair for two hours.

A restraint chair, which is like a wheelchair with shackles for the arms and feet, is used for uncooperative inmates, said Capt. Paul Sigsworth of the Erie County Sheriff's office.

Don spent the next two days in jail and was released that Monday morning. When he returned to his shanty that afternoon, he found his belongings and home soaked with torch fuel.

Within hours a friend and concerned citizen, Andrea, dropped off new blankets. Don said he ran into her at Nan & Pap's, where he buys coffee.

Don's mood turned from angry to sunny when he saw the new blankets.

"People are essentially good," he said, a toothy smile seizing his face. He's missing three of his top front teeth.

The community has rallied around Don in recent months. Since the Register began chronicling his story last year, residents have given him blankets, new clothes, new glasses and food to survive.

For most of the winter he wore black snow pants and a black ski jacket of such high quality, they wouldn't look out of place at a high-end ski resort.

But from the daily wear-and-tear of a homeless winter, the pants and jacket look dirty and worn.

Don said recently his days in Sandusky are numbered. He has a nephew, Robert Below, who lives in Pueblo, Colo. After eight years of searching, Below learned about Don after reading one of the Register's articles.

Below contacted the Register via e-mail and included a phone number. But Below hasn't yet responded to return e-mails, and his phone has no message machine.

Still, Don said he hopes to hook up with his long-lost nephew.

"I think I may go out there," Don said. "The only thing -- I wouldn't want to leave my cat behind. She's been my best friend for too long. I'd need to know someone's taking care of her.""