Verb conjugation of "heften" in German

All people held signs with names on them and on one plate I saw name, of course misspelled. I went with the person to his oldtimer car. We drove to his cottage and I was surprised about the nice reception.
Sometimes this is an outcome of personal problems or incidents. For example, there could be a crime commited by someone of a certain origin. The consequence could be that the victims would blame an entire community.
Luckily for him, his wife stood by him and explained that he was clumsy and that would happen to him all the time. Anyway, it none of our business. We all had dinner afterwards and went to sleep.