Look, we all know politics can be a nasty game, and in today’s heated political climate, candidates will go to great lengths to win an election. They will apparently stoop to some of the lowest lows, as well.
Long-serving Tennessee state representative Curry Todd was caught — on video — stealing his opponent’s campaign signs from someone else’s property. And in a move that might restore your faith in politics, it was that same opponent in the primary, Mark Lovell, who posted Todd’s bail.
The Yard Sign Bandit
It wasn’t hard to identify the culprit in the campaign sign theft. Just watch as a sitting state representative hops out of his Mercedes in broad daylight, scoops up a few signs, and calmly deposits them into his trunk:
My man is so casual about this crime he’s wearing flip flops. This is clearly the move of a man who believes he is above the law. And he acted that way even after he’d been busted. Earle Farrell, spokesman for the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, told the Tennessean that investigators tried numerous times to have Todd come in voluntarily to discuss the sign situation.
Todd allegedly told law enforcement he was going to be out of town last week, and then said he would come in last Friday. When he no-showed on Friday, a warrant for his arrest was issued on Monday and Todd was arrested in his home on Tuesday.
The Volunteer Spirit
Todd was charged with theft under $500, though he claims he had permission from the property owner to both remove Lovell’s signs and replace them with his own. “Yes, I did pick up the signs the other day, and I took ’em,” Todd said in an earlier response to the allegations. “I wasn’t trying to hide anything. It was daylight.”
When Lovell found out Todd had been arrested and was sitting in jail on $100 bond, he decided to do the magnanimous thing and help his political opponent out. “Shoot, I felt sorry for him,” Lovell told The Washington Post. “Wouldn’t you be sad if you were a state representative and nobody would come bail your a** out of jail?”
