Town council candidate arrested at polling place for stealing signs

(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

last updated 10 January 2015

A man running for town council in Yorktown, Indiana, was arrested at his polling place, accused of stealing political signs and leaving the scene of an accident after hitting one of his fellow candidates with his car.

In an affidavit, Republican town council incumbents Bob Ratchford and Rich Lee say that while placing campaign signs at polling sites Monday night, they saw Richard Yencer, a Democrat, taking a sign for Republican U.S. Rep. Luke Messer. They looked in the trunk of Yencer's car and saw other political signs. "When [Lee] told Mr. Yencer he knew the law and he can't do that, Mr. Yencer replied that he is the law," Kip Curtis, a sheriff's deputy, wrote in a report.

After notifying police, Ratchford then allegedly tried to keep Yencer from leaving the scene, so he stood in front of his car. When Yencer put his car into reverse, he reportedly hit Lee "in the knees with the rear bumper of his car." Yencer left the scene, Ratchford and Lee said, and police were unable to find him. He was finally arrested more than 12 hours later at the polling site for Precinct 71, Yorktown High School.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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