"A swastika clearly takes it to another level," said Jim Bennett, who is referring to the two William McCarthy political campaign signs, found defaced, on his property along Route 155 in Guilderland.
"There is something dark and deep seeded about a swastika sign that I think we as a society have clearly denounced and to see this on the sign on my property is a little scary," said Bennett.
Bennett is McCarthy's uncle, and he says he believes the vandalism was definitely politically motivated.
"They didn't do it to our driveway, they didn't do it to our home, they just did it to the candidate's sign," said Bennett.
Bennett also acknowledged the dimensions of the vandalized signs are four feet by six feet, while all the other signs in the area are the more conventional one by two feet. None of the smaller signs were touched.
"I think we attracted some haters with the size of the sign," said Bennett.
McCarthy himself declined to speak with news 10 on camera but he did release this statement:
"There is simply no place for this kind of hate in our community, in our political process or in our country...I know that my fellow candidates running to represent the 109th Assembly District would agree with me in strongly denouncing this vile act."
Police continue to look for the suspects and are treating this as a serious crime. With less than a week to go until the election, they want to make sure it doesn't happen again.
"We'll be providing extra patrol, we will be continuously looking to see if there are any other signs with this type of damage or any other type of damage," said Captain Curtis Cox, with the Guilderland Police Department.
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