Nearly all copies of a Colorado newspaper were stolen from newspaper racks on the day it ran a story about charges being filed over rapes that allegedly occurred at an underage drinking party at the police chief’s home.
In response, the Ouray County Plaindealer posted the front-page story on social media and removed its website’s paywall for readers, according to NBC News.
Reportedly, sexual assault charges were filed against three men, including the police cheif’s relative, for actions that occurred at a party in Ouray in May 2023. Reportedly, drugs and alcohol were involved. The suspects were 17, 18, and 19 at the time, and the person who reported the rapes was 17.
“I’m sorry that most of you locals who like to get your papers from the racks were not able to put your quarters in and receive your weekly news today,” newspaper co-publisher Erin McIntyre said in a statement. “It’s pretty clear that someone didn’t want the community to read the news this week.”
After hundreds of copies were stolen, the newspaper worked to get promptly get another round of the paper printed and redistributed.
“If somebody was going to try to make it so the public couldn’t read this story, we were going to make sure to counteract that,” the publisher, Mike Wiggins, said in a statement.
Someone didn't like this edition of @ocplaindealer. (Guess which article.) So they stole nearly every newspaper out of our racks in Ouray County. If you hoped to silence or intimidate us, you failed miserably. We'll find out who did this. And another press run is imminent. pic.twitter.com/y8YF5evFms
— Mike Wiggins (@mikewiggins76) January 18, 2024
On Saturday, CNN reported that a Colorado man was cited for allegedly stealing more than 200 copies of the paper. The newspapers were returned to the publisher and an individual confessed to taking them.
The suspect is “not a member or relative of local law enforcement and not associated with the defendants in the recent reported sexual assault,” the Ouray County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.
“Thank you for the outpouring of support we have received to help pay us to reprint the paper, and to those who also support our message that you can’t kill the public’s right to know by stealing a few hundred newspapers,” publishers of the Plaindealer said in a statement. It received more than $2,000 in donations after the theft was announced.