An Iowa man who took a Joe Biden presidential campaign yard sign later swiped stacks of local newspapers that reported on the crime, a report said.
Details on Peter De Yager’s July 26 robbery of the sign in the Iowa Great Lakes zone, which he later pleaded guilty to, showed up in the Sept. 2 issue of the Dickinson County News, the weekly newspaper reported.
The day after the newspaper hit the racks, Yager, 70, took about $20 worth of the newspapers from a Jiffy station in Spirit Lake, the report said.
Yager was only charged with stealing from one location, however numerous stores in the area reported their Sept. 2 issues of the local newspaper were also taken.
“We went around to the various convenience stores, and some of them opted not to press charges if he agreed to come in and pay for the papers,” Spirit Lake Police Lieutenant Daren Diers told the Dickinson County News.
One such store that declined to press charges was Okoboji Kum & Go.
The store’s general manager, Tracy Theye, told the Dickinson County News that she recognized Yager, a regular customer, on store surveillance footage that captured the theft of 35 newspapers.
“He put his Wall Street Journal down on top of the Dickinson County News and looked over to see if anyone was watching him, grabbed all the papers and walked out the door,” They said.
They said Yager initially denied stealing the papers. Then he changed tune, saying he thought he took a stack of the area’s free publications.
Yager paid for the stolen copies, They said, and said he planned to pay back other area stores.
