London police are investigating after three election signs belonging to London West Liberal incumbent Kate Young were set on fire sometime overnight.
While police didn’t identify who the election signs belonged to, Young confirmed on social media Wednesday that the vandalized signs were hers.
Police said two of the signs were located along Belmont Drive and were reported on fire around 3 a.m. A third sign, located on Briscoe Street, was later reported to police as having been damaged overnight, police said.
“While the signs were all damaged, there was no additional damage resulting from the fires,” police said in a brief media release, adding the Street Crime Unit was investigating.
“It’s very disturbing,” Young told 980 CFPL. “I know that I think all politicians have had signs that have been kicked or knocked over or maybe have graffiti on it, but to have it set on fire, that’s a safety issue.”
Young said one of the residents whose sign was damaged was very upset about the incident and requested a new sign.
It’s not the first time someone has recently used fire to damage one of Young’s campaign signs. On one of the first weekends after the election was called, Young says someone tried to set one of her larger signs ablaze.
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“I’m very worried about what could happen, and I certainly am very concerned for all political parties and all the volunteers who are putting up these signs.”
The fires come on the heels of two other incidents in the city, one of them also in London West, connected to the federal election.
London West Conservative Candidate Liz Snelgrove reported on Sept. 18 that her campaign office had been broken into sometime the previous night.
“Grateful that no one was hurt. This kind of thing shouldn’t happen in our community,” Snelgrove wrote on Twitter, accompanied by a photo of her campaign office’s smashed glass door.
Over the weekend, meanwhile, a campaign volunteer working with Carol Dyck, the Green Party’s candidate in London North Centre, was injured while canvassing in the riding.
Dyck told 980 CFPL on Monday that the volunteer had been going door-to-door with her campaign team, and decided to hand out flyers solo on her way home.
The volunteer visited a house with several people inside, and one person allegedly attacked her, resulting in a black eye and a scratch on her eyeball, Dyck said.
An official with London police later told 980 CFPL that officers were “made aware of an injury involving a volunteer canvassing for a political party over the weekend” but said that “it appears as though the injury was unintentional.”
The investigation, however, is ongoing, police said.
Anyone with information about any of the aforementioned incidents is asked to contact London police at 519-661-5670, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
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