Man Trashed Stranger's Sparta Property Over Trump Flag: Police

SPARTA, NJ — A 58-year-old Franklin man who took offense to a Sparta resident's flag supporting President Donald Trump was charged last week after he repeatedly threw garbage on the property, police announced Tuesday.

Richard Keller was charged with criminal mischief, harassment and other violations after a Sparta resident complained to police that someone had been throwing garbage in his driveway for the past four months. According to police, the activity stopped temporarily during the coronavirus pandemic but started up again in June.

A police spokesman said Wednesday that the complainant does not know Keller.

The complainant filed several reports with the police and then installed security cameras that captured trash being thrown onto his property from the window of a Kia Soul, police said. On July 1, Sparta police parked an unmarked car in the complainant’s driveway and, at about 5 a.m., a light-colored Kia Soul drove by the residence and someone inside the car threw a bag of garbage out of the window and into the driveway, according to police spokesman Lt. John Lamon.

Officers were alerted and stopped Keller’s vehicle. When asked why he had thrown the garbage onto the property's driveway, Keller replied, “I think you know why … it’s because of that flag,” Lamon said.

When asked which flag he was referencing, Keller told police, “That Trump flag.”

Keller told police he has such disdain for Trump and was enraged by the presence of the flag supporting the president that he decided to inconvenience the Sparta resident by throwing garbage into his driveway, Lamon said.

Keller was released and assigned a court date, when he will face charges of criminal mischief, harassment and several township and New Jersey motor vehicle offenses.