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Mass. man accused of burning Biden-Harris display
Oct 12, 2020 5:30 am
Emily Burkhard is reporting for WNYT-TV a Berkshire County man has been arrested and charged with setting fire to a display of support in Dalton, Massachusetts, for the Biden-Harris presidential ticket. The display was created out of painted hay bales and located on North Street across from Holiday Brook Farm. The farmers set it up late in the day October 8, and in less than 24 hours it was in flames. Dalton police charged Lonnie Durfee, 49, with burning personal property. "You don't ever expect it to happen in your backyard and you certainly don't expect it to happen in Dalton,” said Kate Pike, a farmer at Holiday Brook. Pike said she stopped at the sign less than five minutes before it went up in flames. "I actually was driving home and saw that it had been vandalized, so I pulled over to see what kind of vandalism had been done to it,” Pike said. “It looked like someone had poured something...like coffee all over it, so I actually stopped and took a picture. It looked like...graffiti...and [police] were able to use the timestamp of that photograph." Police said they believe the substance resembling coffee was motor oil. When that failed to ignite the bales, Durfee allegedly returned to try again. The farmers were able to save some of the bales, which they rearranged over the weekend into a new campaign display. The police investigation of the incident is ongoing. Read the full story at wnyt [dot] com.