Police in Fredericksburg, Virginia, are searching for the person responsible for setting fire to a pro-Donald Trump display that sat just a few feet from a row of townhouses.
Police said an officer patrolling the Riverside Manor neighborhood noticed the display on fire about 2 a.m. Monday, a local ABC News affiliate reported.
The fire reportedly destroyed a large Donald Trump sign, a Rep. Rob Wittman sign, an American flag and a bale of hay that the flags were attached to.
The owners of the display were grateful the officer saw the fire when he did.
“If it wasn’t for him we could have died,” said Sarah Atkinson, who lives in the home with her boyfriend David Rouse and his mother, ABC reported. “It just shocks me and upsets me because it’s not just our house that could have caught fire.”
“It upsets me,” Mr. Rouse said, fighting back tears. “It doesn’t matter who you vote for … go vote. Do not terrorize somebody else’s property.”
Mr. Rouse’s neighbor, whose townhouse sits just 10 feet away from the burned display, said he was asleep at the time.
“I could have been burned up if it had gotten out of control,” the neighbor told ABC.
Mr. Rouse’s mother, Dolores, said she wanted the arsonist to know that the vandalism only solidified her support for the Republican presidential nominee.
“I wasn’t going to vote at all,” Dolores said. “Now I’m determined to vote for Donald Trump.”
Fredericksburg police said it wasn’t the first time someone had recently set fire to a Trump sign. A resident reported earlier this month that an arsonist had set fire to a Trump sign on someone’s front porch, ABC reported.
Monday’s arson came just one day after a Republican Party office in Hillsborough, North Carolina, was firebombed and the phrase, “Nazi Republicans leave town or else,” scrawled on side of the building.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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