Last week, the Ashwin Madia campaign got caught stealing the lawn signs of their opponent, Eric Paulsen, in Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional district.  Yesterday, another campaign worker found himself in trouble for theft — the theft of a little girl’s scooter.  Sean Folstad, a 22-year-old worker who got himself arrested during the Republican convention, claimed that a call of nature forced him into a life of crime:

A DFL campaign worker was arrested after he took a girl’s scooter from her backyard while canvassing.

22-year-old Sean Folstad went into the backyard of Bruce Ackerman and took his daughter’s scooter.

A few minutes later and a couple of blocks away, Champlin police caught Folstad at Northland Park.  He told police he needed to use the restroom and the scooter was the fastest way to get there.

That was Folstad’s story.  In a video report from the local Fox station, Ackerman told a much different story.  The family noticed Folstad staring at the house from across the street wearing a Madia for Congress T-shirt, and assumed he would be knocking on their door shortly.  Later — when he didn’t knock on their door — Ackerman saw Folstad doing circles in the street on their daughter’s scooter.  The family called the police, who tracked Folstad down to the park and cited him for theft and disorderly conduct.

And how did Folstad know from looking at the Ackerman house that the scooter was the “best way” to resolve his call of nature?  The scooter was behind the house, and not in view.  What was he doing behind the Ackerman house in the first place?

The Fox report notes that Folstad had some strange videos on YouTube.  They’re mostly harmless spoofs of horror movies, less significant than the report implies.  The arrest at the RNC should have been a little more revealing, given the circumstances of the anarchist-led illegal protests, but that could have well been a badge of honor for Folstad with DFL activists.

The DFL fired Folstad as soon as they found out about the incident. Unfortunately, as Michael Brodkorb notes, their own officials set a poor example.  The lawn-sign thief driving the Madia communication director’s car turned out to his wife.  When their leadership sets such an example, why should we be shocked when their workers follow it?