Ryan Leef, Yukon Conservative candidate, handcuffs, puts vandal under citizen arrest
'What are you doing sir, out here at 11 o'clock at night in the pouring rain, protecting your campaign signs?'
A Whitehorse woman says she was apprehended by Yukon's Conservative candidate late at night by a roadside where she was defacing his campaign signs.
- UPDATE: Ryan Leef says he was setting camera to catch vandal at time of citizen's arrest
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Carrie Boles says she had destroyed about half a dozen Ryan Leef election signs when the politician, dressed in camouflage, came out of the trees with another man dressed in black. Boles believes the second man was Darren Parsons, Leef's campaign manager. She didn't recognize the men right away.
"I didn't realize at first, what was going on."
"I recognized Mr. Leef's voice and I was like, 'what are you doing sir, out here at 11 o'clock at night in the pouring rain, protecting your campaign signs?'"
Boles admits it was the second time she had defaced Leef's campaign signs. The police let Boles go with a warning, but she wonders why Leef was sitting in the dark with handcuffs and a motion sensor.
She says the experience was terrifying and she regrets her actions. She says she didn't realize that destroying election signs was a crime. As for why she did it, Boles says she was "having one of those days. There was really not a lot of thought put into it."
"I saw all these signs on the road and I thought you know what, 'they're gaudy, they look awful and I've just had enough.'" Boles said.
Leef's office has not returned calls, however John Thompson, the editor of the Yukon News, says Leef's office has confirmed the facts Boles wrote in a letter to the paper, which was published on Wednesday. In the letter, Boles describes the events from her perspective.
"For those wondering, we did contact Ryan Leef's office and confirmed events described [Boles' letter] are true," Thompson tweeted.