‘Yes, I Took the Signs’

On the day before Election Day, a Springs woman was caught on video hurrying off with a neighbor’s campaign signs. Elizabeth M. Ruth, 73, was an unlikely arrestee. The signs’ owner, Lynne Scanlon, told East Hampton Town police that she had put up several anti-rental registry signs, all of which had been stolen. She decided to fight back.

“I set up a surveillance camera at the end of my driveway, to watch the rental registry sign,” she told police.

At about 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 2, the sign again came up missing, along with a political sign. Ms. Scanlon checked the video, then called police.

She apparently was on friendly terms with Ms. Ruth. “I helped her with her injured dog,” she said.

The video ended up on Facebook. A older woman can be seen taking the signs out of the ground and walking to a car, then driving away. 

Police contacted Ms. Ruth, whose Pembroke Drive house is on the other side of Ms. Scanlon’s block. She went to headquarters. “Yes, I took the signs,” she reportedly told detectives. “I have them in a black garbage bag.” 

Charged with petty theft, she was released from headquarters to await arraignment next month in East Hampton Town Justice Court.