Alleged political sign theft results in misdemeanor charge for UNCA professor

ASHEVILLE — Here today. Gone tomorrow. 

That's the story of dozens of bright yellow political signs calling for Buncombe County voters to "drain the swamp" by casting their ballots for Republicans on Nov. 6.

Over the past couple weeks, the man behind the signs has watched as they disappeared, stolen from lawns and rights of way. Others were left in place but vandalized.

On Friday night, he caught a pair of alleged sign stealers in the act, resulting in a misdemeanor criminal charge for a UNC Asheville professor.  

"This is just one of those things that shouldn't be happening," said Mike Summey, organizer of the political action committee Angry Buncombe Taxpayers, which has already paid for and installed about 600 "drain the swamp" signs around the county. 

"If you’ve got a difference of opinion, you don’t go out stealing or damaging the property of people with other opinions," Summey said. "And if you’re an intelligent person, like an associate professor, you should know better."

The professor to whom Summey referred is Amanda Wray, an associate professor of English at UNCA, according to university spokeswoman Sarah Broberg. Wray — who holds a Ph.D. in rhetoric, composition and the teaching of English — is charged with one count of removing a political sign, a misdemeanor.

As of Saturday afternoon, Wray's warrant had not been served, but Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan said that she'd been in contact with deputies and had agreed to surrender herself to law enforcement Saturday. 

Wray didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday.  

Though sign theft isn't entirely uncommon during election season, it's fairly rare that the act results in an arrest, Duncan told the Citizen Times Saturday afternoon.

The reason that the sheriff's office was able to take out charges against Wray, Duncan said, was that Summey captured a picture of the 38-year-old professor's license plate as she and her alleged accomplice — who hasn't been identified — left the scene. 

"It's not often the case that people actually come upon people in act of stealing a sign," the sheriff said over the phone. "Charges for that kind of thing are few and far between in Buncombe County. But it is a law, and it's one that we will enforce if somebody can get that kind of evidence."

Summey, a resident of Erwin, told the Citizen Times Saturday that he was driving home Friday night when he noticed one of the Angry Buncombe Taxpayer's signs was missing from the corner of Patton Avenue and New Leicester Highway. 

As he continued down New Leicester Highway, he noticed a few more signs had disappeared before he got to Ingles, where he said he saw Wray and another woman he doesn't know removing two more "drain the swamp" signs. 

It was shortly before 10 p.m. when Summey confronted the women — neither of whom he knew at the time, he said. 

"I told them that stealing political signs was against the law, and that I'd call the police," Summey said. "They just kept right on walking while I was trying to talk to them."

Summey said that the women had parked in near the Ingles off Mt. Carmel Road, where he observed them put the signs in their car before driving off. Summey took a picture of Wray's license plate, and reported the incident to the sheriff's office — for which he volunteered as an auxiliary deputy until about eight months ago when he retired, Duncan said. 

The sheriff said that investigators will try to identify the woman who Summey said was working with Wray. 

Summey said that his PAC has spent "several thousand dollars" on the "drain the swamp" signs this year. He said that probably about 100 out of 600 signs installed have been vandalized or stolen. 

As news of Friday night's sign theft spread on social media, supporters of Angry Buncombe Taxpayers called for Wray's dismissal from UNCA. Others, including Summey, said that the sign theft proves "liberal bias" in institutions of higher learning — a common conservative critique of academia. 

"If these are the people teaching our young people, no wonder some of them are growing up conflicted," Summey said. 

UNCA spokeswoman Broberg declined to address such comments Saturday afternoon.  

"This is an issue between a citizen of Asheville and law enforcement, so we have no further comment," she said.