Ontario Conservative candidate George Lepp butt of Tweet hack?

I’ll be brief. An Ontario PC candidate who has 19 tweets up on his campaign twitter feed, winds up with a 20th tweet which was online for about 20 minutes today before it was taken down by his son. According to The Canadian Press, Mr. Lepp’s son found the picture Sunday morning.  That begs the question, when did it get to The Sun?

The tweeted picture is online – it’s a pic of a mans genitals.

That’s not the weird part, it’s what the spokesman for the Ontario Conservatives supposedly told the Toronto Sun before changing his story for the Toronto Star. The Sun:

Rookie PC candidate George Lepp says he’s embarrassed that a photo of his family jewels was posted on his campaign Twitter account for about 20 minutes before it was quickly unzipped.

The rest from the Conservative spokesman:

Sakach said the device was operating on camera mode in his front pant pocket when it went missing. He added that Lepp suspects it was taken as he was jostled by protesters outside the Dixon Rd. convention centre where the Tories met for the party’s weekend convention.

That statement gives ownership of the picture to Lepp. Now the Conservative communications director tells The Star that he didn’t tell The Sun how the picture was taken:

The Sun article by reported that the photo was taken by Lepp’s BlackBerry when it was on camera mode in his front pant pocket. The information was attributed to Tory communications director Alan Sakach.

“That’s incorrect. I have no idea how the photo was taken,” Sakach told the Star.

Lepp was pickpocketed outside the Dixon Rd. convention centre Saturday as he was leaving the party conference, Sakach said. Lepp’s son noticed the “very unusual Tweet” on Sunday and removed it immediately, Sakach said.

“I know he was pickpocketed and somebody posted a link to a pornographic photo,” Sakach said. “Obviously it had nothing to do with George. It’s something he is very upset about.”

Lepp isn’t being blackmailed with his BlackBerry and where the tweet was posted from can’t be too hard to crack. Sakach didn’t say that he didn’t talk to The Sun, just that he didn’t say what The Sun said he said. Okay. He is a communications director, wouldn’t it be prudent of him to have taped a conversation with Fox News North about something so, er, delicate?  Er. “It’s crap journalism,” was another poor choice of words by Mr. Sakach. That’s like using the term junk journalism. Why wasn’t the Conservative Party communications director and his team dealing with this faster?

From the time The Sun story appeared online to the time The Star story appeared is over 3 hours. PC candidates are using social media for their campaign and used it for the convention, 3 hours is a long time online, and the party communications folk are smart enough to know that. This is poor damage control from professionals.

The pics were emailed around and if the Blackberry was stolen and the thieves smart enough to get into the Twitter account, get a picture up and get it emailed, how difficult can IP’s etc., be to track down? Why would a communications director comment on this story not knowing if police had been contacted? Sakach says late Sunday night he hasn’t seen the picture. That is not plausible. Where is a police statement, and a statement from the candidate? Lepp can comment on Twitter.

A similar incident occurred in the US Friday, this politician was probably pranked, and took it in stride with a joke. He has 40 thousand people following his Twitter feed, Mr. Lepp has 80. (6/6/11 Rep. Wiener isn’t joking anymore, he lied and he got caught)

Pickpockets at a convention is plausible. The rest – not so much. I’m not sure I’d want the Conservative’s communication people speaking for me about something that showed up on my Twitter feed. We assume men are not as psychologically traumatized if they have been a genuine victim, and that’s to our detriment. Lepp being a possible victim of The Sun’s sensationalism is also plausible, and political motivation is also plausible.

Update: Conservative Party leader Tim Hudak says Lepp was the victim of a crime, and that the twitter picture was a practical joke. Some joke. This is a joke: NDP MPP Peter Kormos suggested BlackBerries be banned in the legislature to “protect the privacy of members.”

Update: George Lepp’s explanation makes sense. Techs are all over the congressman twitter hijack and trace it back to a guy who is obsessed with him.