Image source: Grimm campaign via Politicker.
The Staten Island campaign headquarters of Rep. Michael Grimm was allegedly vandalized and burglarized sometime on Saturday night, as reported by Politicker’s Hunter Walker.
“Overnight, cement blocks were thrown through the windows of his campaign HQ located at 2582 Hylan Blvd. between the New Dorp post office and the Hylan Shopping Plaza on Staten Island,” Grimm spokesperson Carol Danko wrote in a Sunday afternoon email to reporters.
During a phone conversation, Danko informed Politicker that NYPD “discovered computers inside the office had their hard drives erased.” According to her, one theory police are looking into is whether the windows were broken in order to draw attention away from the tampered-with computers.
From Politicker:
Ms. Danko said that campaign workers left the office around 7:30 p.m. Saturday night and discovered the vandalism when they arrived at the office again around 10 a.m. today. She stressed that the information on the computers was already backed up and that the compromised computers did not contain the personal information of any campaign volunteers. In her email to reporters, Ms. Danko said the Congressman is currently “on scene” with the NYPD. Capitol Police have also been notified.
This would mark the second time this year that Grimm, who claims a mailbox was stolen from the front of his home this past February, was the target of thieves. Although police do not currently have any suspects, the Grimm camp says that this time, they believe the crime was politically motivated.
[Updated] 1:20 p.m. to reflect that Democrats are privately expressing doubts about Grimm’s story [via Politicker's Colin Campbell].
Yesterday, law enforcement sources reportedly told Shane Dixon Kavanaugh of the Daily News that “they had found no evidence of forced entry at the campaign headquarters” and that “cops are investigating the allegation as an act criminal mischief and not burglary.”