NORTHBORO — A teenager who was chased down Wednesday after he ripped a Donald Trump campaign sign out of a Northboro man’s yard told police he believes the Republican presidential candidate is fueling racial animus toward Hispanics.

Northboro Police Chief Mark Leahy said the 18-year-old was questioned Wednesday after an off-duty police sergeant spotted him being chased down Main Street and called for assistance.

Leahy said the teen admitted to removing a Trump sign from a yard at 20 Summer St. and throwing it into the road. The teen, who identified himself as Hispanic, told officers he was “fed up” with being the target of racist comments, which he “attributed to Donald Trump,” Leahy said.

In a police report, Sgt. Joseph Galvin wrote that police went to 119 Main St. shortly before 1 p.m. to investigate a disturbance. Officers found the teenager sitting in a parking lot, where he had been detained by the sign owner’s son and another man who helped chase him down, according to the police report. Galvin then asked the 18-year-old to explain his actions.

“He stated he did it because ‘I have been called a (racial epithet) more and more because of Trump,’ ” the report reads.

Galvin also questioned the sign owner, Jeffrey Antone, who told police his Trump signs have been stolen several times, leading him to install a video camera on his property. Antone declined to press charges after retrieving the sign and placing it on his lawn once again, according to the police report.

In an interview Thursday, Antone said his Trump signs have been stolen or removed at least five times. While it costs him about $45 for each pair of signs he has shipped to his house, Antone, 55, said he is more irritated by the principle of the thefts than the monetary loss.

He likened the acts of vandalism to the interruptions caused by protesters at Trump’s campaign rallies, saying Trump’s opponents appear to believe their opinion matters more than those of others.

“It’s the mentality of these kids today,” Antone said.

After seeing his sign removed again Wednesday, Antone said his son and a friend got into a car and chased after the teenager, tailing him several blocks on Route 20 before finally catching up with him near White Cliffs mansion.

Antone said he followed behind in another vehicle and seized the teenager by the arm.

“He said, ‘'Trump’s a racist and that’s why I did this,’ ” Antone recalled. “It’s just sad.”

Antone, a Florida native who is semiretired, said he is supporting Trump because he feels the GOP front-runner isn’t “bought by the establishment.”

While he once considered himself a conservative Democrat, Antone said he now typically supports Republican candidates. He lamented the country’s political climate, saying political opponents can no longer find common ground the way they did in the 1980s and mid-1990s.

“People don’t even want to talk to each other,” he said. “We’re just going to call each other names or go take something from the other person … It’s like America has lost its common sense.”