Police identify suspect in Phoenix mailbox fire, ballots burned

Phoenix police on Thursday identified the man accused of setting fire to a U.S. Postal Service mailbox.

Dieter Klofkorn, 35, was booked into the Maricopa County Jail on a charge of arson, according to court documents.

Police said Klofkorn set fire to a USPS collection box on Seventh Avenue around 12:40 a.m. Thursday. After being taken into custody, Klofkorn provided the lighter he used to damage the box, court documents showed. Phoenix police said Klofkorn he admitted to arson, knew the gravity of his behavior and wanted to be arrested.

Klofkorn lit a piece of paper on fire and threw it into the collection box, according to the probable cause statement. The court filing said about 20 ballots, along with numerous pieces of mail, were destroyed. Klofkorn said in an interview with police that the fire was not politically motivated.

The vehicle’s collection box was at the U.S. Post Office on North Seventh Avenue near West Indian School Road, according to the Phoenix Fire Department.

Court records showed Klofkorn pleaded guilty to a drug paraphernalia charge in 2023. He was released from prison in June after a six-month sentence, according to Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry records.

Court records also showed that Klofkorn pleaded guilty to an aggravated assault charge in 2018. The Republic reported that Klofkorn, then 29, tried to grab a Surprise police officer’s gun and was approached by construction workers who observed the incident. A construction worker used duct tape to restrain him until Glendale police officers arrived. Klofkorn told police he wanted the gun “because it’s cool,” according to a Glendale police spokesman.

However, a Phoenix police spokesman told The Republic that he could not officially confirm whether the same suspect set fire to the mailbox and committed the aggravated assault in 2018.

Klofkorn had a warrant for his arrest unrelated to the arson.

Klofkorn’s bail was set at $50,200.