By Caitlin Sievers | AZ Mirror
Phoenix police have arrested a 35-year-old for allegedly setting fire to a United States Postal Service mailbox in Phoenix early Thursday morning, damaging several ballots dropped in the box, ahead of the November election.
Police arrested Dieter Klofkorn on an unrelated warrant, and said in a press release that, during an interview, he admitted to setting the fire in a mailbox at the Osborn Post Office near the intersection of 7th Avenue and Indian School Road. Klofkorn told police that his actions were not politically motivated, and that he set the fire so he would be arrested and taken to jail, according to police.
He has a history of being unhoused, according to previous reporting from ABC 15.
Klofkorn has been convicted of multiple crimes over the past several years in Maricopa County Superior Court, as well as Phoenix and Scottsdale municipal courts, including indecent exposure, theft and trespassing, according to online court records. Following several of his convictions, Klofkorn repeatedly violated the terms of his probation, which could also get him sent to jail.
“Any attack that strikes at our democratic process carries criminal consequences,” Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said in a written statement. “Ballot abuse is a felony in Arizona, and mailbox vandalism is a federal crime.”
