Almost all copies of a small-town Colorado newspaper were stolen from newspaper racks on the same day the Ouray County Plaindealer published a story regarding charges filed over alleged rapes at an underage drinking party held at the police chief’s residence while he was asleep, according to the owner and publisher on Friday.
Mike Wiggins expressed his determination to uncover the truth, taking to X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday: “If you hoped to silence or intimidate us, you failed miserably. We’ll find out who did this. And another press run is imminent.”
The newspaper shared the story on social media and removed its website paywall to allow readers access to details about the felony sexual assault charges filed against three men, including a relative of the police chief. The alleged incidents occurred at a May 2023 party in Ouray involving drugs and alcohol, as per court records. The suspects were ages 17, 18, and 19 at the time, with the individual reporting the alleged rapes being 17, according to records.
Small-Town U.S. Newspapers Pilfered Following Publication of Rape Charges at Police Chief’s Residence (Credits: WRAL)
By Thursday evening, someone had returned a garbage bag full of newspapers to the Plaindealer, and supporters had contributed about $2,000 to the paper—a gesture Wiggins described as “extremely heartening and humbling.”
On Friday morning, approximately 250 newspapers were restocked in the racks across Ouray County, a mountainous region in southwestern Colorado with a population of around 5,000.
Wiggins stated, “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 weekly newspaper carries a rack price of $1, indicating that the perpetrator spent $12 opening racks and removing all the newspapers, according to Wiggins. They overlooked one newspaper rack at a coffee shop, resulting in the theft of about 200 papers. Fortunately, the racks themselves were undamaged.
Wiggins believed that the person who returned the newspapers was also the one who took them, emphasizing that only one person was likely involved in the theft. While he refrained from identifying the person, he reported the information to the police. Surveillance video of some of the thefts was also in the possession of the officers, according to Wiggins.
Ouray Police Chief Jeff Wood did not respond to a phone message from The Associated Press on Friday seeking comment.
The Plaindealer intends to feature a story in next Thursday’s edition addressing the paper theft and possibly including a column explaining the seriousness with which they took the matter and decided to reprint the paper, Wiggins added.
“It’s strange to be writing about ourselves,” Wiggins remarked. “We work very hard to make sure we are not the story.”
Mike Wiggins and his wife, Erin McIntyre, have owned and published the paper for nearly five years. The only similar incident occurred about three years ago when McIntyre wrote about a local campground violating lodging restrictions implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, someone tampered with the newspaper rack at the campground, covering the coin slot and placing a sign requesting removal of the rack, Wiggins recalled.
