Mount Kisco man 'tagged' in campaign sign theft

By MARTIN WILBUR

Modern technology has played a role in solving a perennial problem — the theft of political campaign signs.

A 41-year-old Mount Kisco man was arrested Monday in the theft of 20 political signs in the village after they were found in the back of his truck. AirTags, small tracking devices, led to the vehicle.

Daniel Bruno of Boltis Street was charged with fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, a misdemeanor, a Westchester County police spokesman said. All the signs had been taken from two locations — South Bedford Road and Main Street, and Lexington Avenue and Main Street, police said.

The complainant, who noticed the signs were missing at about 9 a.m. on Monday, told police that air tags had been affixed to several of the signs and were used to track their location. The signs with the tags were tracked to a vehicle in the parking lot at TJ Maxx on East Main Street, police said.

An officer responded and saw the signs in the back of an unoccupied dump truck that was parked in the lot. Police said the vehicle’s owner arrived a short time later, and the officer made a traffic stop as he began to drive away.

Police detained Bruno, the truck’s registered owner, for investigation. There were 20 campaign signs that were recovered, including three that contained the air tags, police said. He was released at that time, pending a continued investigation.

Police said the complainant later pressed charges, prompting police to contact Bruno and advise him to come to the Green Street precinct. He arrived at about 2:45 p.m. and he was given an appearance ticket. He is due to appear in Mount Kisco Justice Court on Oct. 15.

Among the signs that were stolen were those of Mount Kisco Democrats Tom Luzio and Michael McGuirk, who are running for Village Board next month. McGuirk said he understood that the signs that were taken were all for Democratic candidates in multiple races, including Assemblymember Chris Burdick, state Sen. Pete Harckham and congressional candidate Cait Conley, and possibly others. McGuirk, who called the incident “a minor distraction,” said it really is an affront to the many small donors who have contributed to candidates’ campaigns.

“We’re not running on the strength of our signs or the locations,” he said. “We’re running on our experience and the commitment to the people of Mount Kisco. But I don’t think that gets decided when they take our signs. It’s unfortunate that they took the signs of the Democrats in the area, whoever it was who chose to do that.”

Luzio mentioned that about six of the signs were for him and McGuirk.

“It’s disappointing that it happened,” Luzio said. “It happened two years ago. It was suggested that I didn’t know how to put in my signs and somehow a Democratic wind came by and blew all of them down. Clearly, with this arrest that’s not what happened. It’s a deliberate act.”

Police estimated that each of the signs cost about $12 and the air tags were valued at $27 apiece.

This was the first reported incident of political sign thefts for this year’s election in Mount Kisco, a police spokesman said.