The following article was compiled from a press release from the Wilton Police Department.
The Wilton Police Department announced it had arrested a suspect in its investigation into stolen Israeli flag yard signs. The department opened an investigation last fall after multiple Israeli yard signs were taken from various areas within the Town of Wilton.
According to a report issued by Lt. Anna Tornello, police identified Wilton resident Emmett Graydon Miller, age 20, as a suspect and subsequently interviewed him at his residence.
Tornello said that Miller allegedly was found to have 20 Israeli-themed yard signs at his residence, all of which were seized by Wilton Police.
Officers issued an active arrest warrant and on Wednesday, June 12, Miller turned himself in to Wilton Police.
According to Tornello, the Wilton Police Department had received 17 individual complaints of stolen Israeli yard signs between Oct. 30, 2023 and March 20, 2024.
Miller was charged with 6th-degree larceny in violation of CGS 53a-125b. He was released after posting a court-ordered $5,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in Stamford Superior Court on June 24, 2024.
In early November, concerns over the theft of several Israeli flag signs prompted then-First Selectwoman Lynne Vanderslice to send a message calling the thefts “acts of anti-Semitism that will not be tolerated in Wilton.”
The lawn signs had been put up by some residents as a gesture of support for Israel after the terrorist attack and kidnappings on Oct. 7, 2023. At the time, Police Chief Thomas Conlon said similar sign thefts were happening in neighboring towns but that there was no evidence those thefts were related to anything in Wilton.
I hope you follow this story to the end. I hope this isn’t whitewashed. It is a serious act of antisemitism that must be addressed.
It would certainly be interesting to know why a 20 year old would be stealing these signs of support for Israel.