As the presidential election enters its final week, it has colored even crime on the Outer Cape.
On Monday, Oct. 26, Cory Mcculloch, 33, of Eastham, was arraigned in Orleans District Court on a charge of operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license and three counts of tagging property with “Trump 2020” stickers.
Truro Officer Andrew Starbard responded to a call on Aug. 17 from Sebastian Snow, owner of Jams Grocery & Deli. A man had plastered Jams and the Truro Post Office with Trump stickers, then left.
Starbard arrived on the scene to hear the rest of Snow’s story. Two days earlier, said Snow, in the process of opening Jams, he noticed “Trump 2020” stickers stuck to the poles of his picnic umbrellas. He removed them. At midday, Snow found another sticker decorating his “Order Here” sign. He removed it. That evening, Snow found his umbrella poles re-Trump-ified. Again, he removed the stickers and cleaned the poles.
On Aug. 17, Snow noticed a slim, white, flannel-clad man standing across the parking lot at the post office, applying a Trump sticker to its air conditioner. Then, Snow told Starbard, the sticker-spreader embarked on a campaign that began at Truro Center Road’s no parking and crosswalk yield sign, continued to the trash-can lids and “mask required” notice in Snow’s Park, and wrapped up at a stop sign on South Pamet Road.
Starbard assessed the situation and wrote in his police report that he confirmed Snow’s account and discovered “approximately 82” additional stickers — all “Trump 2020,” of the same two designs and size — on the benches, electrical box, and a water spigot at Snow’s Park.
The campaigner had left the scene. Starbard did, too, and asked Snow to call with any updates. He didn’t have to wait long. Dawn Snow, Sebastian’s wife, phoned just hours later to announce that the sticker guy had returned to the post office in a gray Toyota Rav4.
The car, Starbard learned, belonged to Truro’s Debra Hopkins. The driver was her son, Mcculloch. Starbard apprehended him as he left the post office. Mcculloch had been seen — and photographed — putting stickers on public and private property. Starbard asked to see a driver’s license.
Mcculloch told Starbard that his license was suspended. He was “in the process of getting it back.” When it came to the Trump stickers, Mccullogh had nothing to say.
Mcculloch will next appear in Orleans District Court on Nov. 23, 20 days after the election, for a pretrial conference.
