Candidates Spouse - Alleged theft of political signs "No such theft took place"

Dear Editor:

An on-line story on a website called Smithtown Matters was just brought to my attention regarding an alleged theft of political signs. Let’s be clear: no such theft took place!

Click on photo to enlarge - photo submitted by Barbara HenningsThe article in part tells the story this way: “A passerby witnessed a woman pull her car over, exit the car, and begin to remove signs promoting the campaigns of Mario Mattera and Lynne Nowick, and place them in the car trunk. When confronted, the woman stated that she was stealing ‘the signs because Mattera stole my Paul Hennings signs.’ The witness demanded she put the signs back, but she refused. The witness told the woman that he noted her license plate number and would be contacting the police.” I also see that Mr. Mattera will have “an announcement later this week” about the “identity of the car.” Since I was there, let me spare everyone the suspense. My name appears below so you don’t have to guess who I am.

Last Sunday morning, August 25th, I was on my way to the store and noticed that a political lawn sign for my husband that I had put up in front of a well- known establishment – with express permission of the owner – had been pulled up and was lying flat on the ground. In its place, where it had been, were two signs, one for Mattera and another for Nowick.

As I have done elsewhere in town where someone has clearly displaced the Hennings sign, I pulled over to put my sign back up when a man identifying himself as “a friend of Mario” said “what are you doing? I put those signs up.” I told him I was putting up my sign, never mentioning my husband’s name, and I asked him if he knocked my sign down, which he denied.

I was not going to be intimidated, so I proceeded to put my sign upright. Because he threatened to take down my plates, I took a photo of all three signs in the ground together. (photo attached)

Let me politely state again, no signs were “stolen” by me. No signs came near my “trunk.” When I left, all the signs were there, as the photo shows.

There are consequences for calling someone a thief when the accuser knows that to be false.

Barbara Hennings