When Kevin Moore sat down with the RCMP to discuss possible solutions to the crime problem in his neighbourhood, they gave him one piece of advice.

"They told me, 'Get in their face,'" Moore recalls.

It wasn't the response he was hoping for, but at this point, the Whitehorse businessman doesn't know what else to do.

"So I'm going to get in their face."

Moore's 20-acre property in Mendenhall, a small community on the Alaska Highway west of Whitehorse, has been robbed at least three times in the last 18 months, and he's had enough.

"We're plagued by a thief," Moore says of his neighbourhood.

"The first time I was hit for $70,000 - I lost original artwork, all of my tools, and highly personal things, irreplaceable things."

Among the items stolen the first time was a trunk full of letters sent by Moore's grandfather when he was fighting in the First World War, the tools Moore used to build his home and "several hundred cords of wood."

Most recently, he returned home to find the lock on his front gate, installed since the second robbery, cut. The new snowblower he had bought just weeks earlier was gone.

His home insurance company has not given him a cent, he says, even though he held a policy which covered theft.

"Instead they sent me a letter saying my premium was going up," he says of the company's response to his claim. He adds with a wry laugh, "I cancelled it."

The missing wood and snowmobile both point to a well-equipped and organized criminal, Moore says - one who knows when no one will be home, and what there is to take.

"These guys are watching the neighbourhood," he says.

His neighbours have been hit too, he says, always the ones who go to work every day and leave their homes unattended.

The police have offered little help, and pleas to the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods office hasn't done any good, Moore says.

"Their attitude's been the same every time," Moore says of the RCMP's reaction - " 'What do you expect us to do?' And my response is the same every time, 'Your job.'"

They haven't done that, Moore says, and in spite of the new lock on his gate.

"It's a shame," he says. "I've never even had to lock my front door before this."

He also has a new fence around the perimeter of his farm, but the thief keeps coming. So he's taking a new tack, and is determined to make as much noise as possible.

Moore is taking out ads in local media offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the thief or thieves. With it is an open letter to the ones who have stolen from him.

His message is clear and reads like a super hero's credo.

"I am now making you aware that I am making it my personal mission in life to find out who you are, and when I do, I will be prosecuting you to the fullest extent of the law.

"Rest assured: I will never stop and will never rest until I have accomplished this."

Moore says he expects to take some heat from his neighbours over this, especially those who haven't been adversely affected by the crime but may well see their property values suffer from the negative publicity.

"But what else can I do?" he asks.

"I've lived here 11 years. My son has lived here his whole life. This is my home; I'm going to protect it."