Homeless man admits to torching mailbox, destroying ballots in Phoenix

A homeles Phoenix man was arrested on Thursday after he allegedly set fire to a US Postal Service collection box that contained numerous election ballots. 35-year-old Dieter Klofkorn was charged with one count of arson and booked into Maricopa County jail. He later confessed to the crime.

The Phoenix Fire Department contacted police shortly after 1 am on Thursday after they responded to a fire at a USPS collection box on Seventh Avenue, a press release stated. 

While working on leads in the case, investigators were led to possible suspect Klofkorn. He was arrested on an outstanding and unrelated warrant. While in custody, he admitted to the arson. "Klofkorn stated that he committed the arson because he wanted to be arrested and that his actions were not politically motivated and not related to anything involving the upcoming election," the press release stated.

Klofkorn was said to have lit a piece of paper on fire and tossed it into the collection box, in which there were around 20 election ballots and other pieces of mail, which were destroyed, according to AZ Central. Social media users claimed that the fire was set by a Republican, with an official Democratic Party account on X spreading the claims. "But yeah, Democrats are the ones doing voter fraud," wrote the Harris County, Texas Democratic Party X account in response to a post that claimed Klofkorn was a Republican. 

Klofkorn was previously released in June after serving a six month for a drug paraphernalia charge. He also pleaded guilty in 2018 to an aggravated assault charge. Then-29-year-old Klofkorn attempted to grab a police officer’s gun in Suprise, Arizona and was tackled by construction workers, one of which used duct tape to restrain Klofkorn until officers arrived. A Glendale police spokesperson said that Klofkorn told authorities he wanted the gun "because it’s cool."