Man Shoots Teenager to Protect McCain Sign

Every election year yard signs for candidates are stolen. I know. I had two Kerry sign stolen from my yard in 2004, and there are numerous reports this year of both Obama and McCain signs being stolen or vandalized. And it's troubling, and certainly annoying if it happens to you. However, I've never heard of anyone going this far to protect anyone's political yard sign -- until now:

WARREN -- A pair of teenage boys thought they were playing a prank by knocking down a John McCain campaign sign Saturday afternoon and yelling, "This is for Obama" to the homeowner.

But the homeowner, Kenneth Rowles, 50, was sitting on the front porch and didn't think it was funny, especially since this was the second time vandals had damaged his campaign signs.

Rowles went into his 1237 Dover St. home in Warren Township, got a .22-caliber rifle and went back to the porch to confront the boys at about 2 p.m.

Rowles said he fired the rifle three times "to scare them" but never pointed the rifle at the boys or the car.

Nonetheless, at about 11 a.m. Sunday, the mother of one of the boys called police -- saying her nephew, Kyree Flowers, 17, of 1205 Dover, had been shot once in the arm, and that her tan GMC SUV had been hit by two other bullets.