Ed Kravitz, owner of the I.B. Local News, said he has filed a criminal complaint about copies of his paper being taken or covered up by the distributor of the competitor paper, the Imperial Beach and South County Eagle & Times.

Dean Eckenroth, owner of the Eagle & Times, has had several disputes with Kravitz’s paper since it started publishing last year and countered that the I.B. Local News is placing its papers on the racks owned by the Eagle & Times.

Kravitz claims business owners have spoken to him about finding fresh copies of the I.B. Local News in the trash. Kravitz said he first heard about the problem when he received a phone call from a manager at the local Home Depot.

One witness, Imperial Beach resident Lance Kuenzi, said he went to the 7-Eleven on 13th and Imperial Beach Boulevard "about two minutes" after the Eagle & Times was delivered there and saw new copies of the I.B. Local News in the garbage bin.

Laura Barbato, owner of West Coast Cafe, said, “After the Eagle & Times was delivered, his [Kravitz’s] papers were covered," she said.

Kravitz said on his newspaper's website that a "near altercation" over the practice occurred at Bibbeys Shell Shop between an employee and the delivery man; however, the employee said there was no incident. "He [the delivery man] just asked if it was okay to put the papers there," said the employee. "No big deal."

Eckenroth said he has used the same distributor for 16 years and "he has never missed a delivery, and I have never received a complaint about [the distributor] — until now."

Eckenroth said he is the damaged party and that "issues of I.B. Local News have been placed in news racks owned by the Eagle & Times and its distributors. I.B. Local News has no right to place its products in these racks; their presence represents an unlawful trespass. The sheriff’s department is aware of this problem," Eckenroth said via email.

When the I.B. Local News started publishing last year, Eckenroth demanded a retraction when the paper made a claim concerning the Eagle & Times that Eckenroth considered untrue; Eckenroth has also allegedly issued a cease-and-desist warning to the paper over a copyright infringement matter.

Kravitz claims he has witnessed his paper being tampered with firsthand while following the Eagle & Times distributor around Imperial Beach. Kravitz said police have told him there is little they can do and advised him to stop following around the Eagle & Times delivery driver.

"The cops are telling me I need to back off a little bit," Kravitz said.

Disclosure: The author has had articles published in the I.B. Local News. Ed Kravitz, meanwhile, contributed an article to the Reader in December 2014.

(corrected 2/18, 12:50 p.m.)