Stolen political yard sign – mega pissed off.

Desperately hoping this doesn’t get floundered up but here goes.

OK, I’m really really pissed. Some mouth breathing knuckle dragging moron stole my Presidential yard sign last night. In prior elections I’ve donated early and had my sign out for months prior. This year I’m less enthusiastic about any of the candidates, but the appearance of a yard signs for ‘the other side’ in my neighborhood prompted me to finally donate a few weeks ago and get a sign. I donated prior to a certain revelation making things pretty much a forgone conclusion, but didn’t’ receive the sign until Monday so I put it up. Now, I have to say that my views are pretty much in line with not just my village, but most of the surrounding cities too. Within the County the popular vote has gone ‘my way’ for the last 20 years and the actual vote has all but once when it went the other way due to gerrymandered districts. I’ve called the Police to report it, not that they can do a thing about it, but I wondered if it had been a spate of thefts overnight. Nope, just me. So I have to assume it’s the people round the corner, they moved in about six months ago and I really don’t know them. It could be kids, but it’s never happened before so I’m putting 2+2 together. So, I’m really really pissed and my (admitted) prejudices about the other parties supports have just been strengthened considerably.

Off to call the appropriate campaign office to get a replacement now.

That's... really odd considering where you live. I could see it happening here, though!

Adrian_Thompson wrote: Off to call the appropriate campaign office to get a replacement now.

Get two. If it gets stolen again wire the backup sign to an electric fence power source.

slefain wrote: Get two. If it gets stolen again wire the backup sign to an electric fence power source.

I won't sink to there level.............or more acuratly if I wouldnt' get arrested and generate a load of 'good' publicity for their candidate at the same time.....

I had someone from one of the parties visit me while I was puttering around in the driveway a few weeks ago. He was armed with yard signs and stuff. I sent him on his way quickly (I'm completely apolitical and hate uninvited guests) but half of me wanted to call him back over and ask about his motivation. Specifically, I live about 2/3rds of the way down a quiet dead-end street. A yard sign at my house would have an audience of maybe 10 people a day, and they'd be the same 10 people over and over.

The second question would have been "why me?" since he showed up on foot but I didn't see him stop at any of my neighbors' houses before mine. He addressed me by my first name, which I guess is public record. When he left, he didn't bother going down to the end of the street, he headed back the way he came. Was I singled out? Based on what intel or behavior?

slefain wrote:

Adrian_Thompson wrote: Off to call the appropriate campaign office to get a replacement now.

Get two. If it gets stolen again wire the backup sign to an electric fence power source.

I wouldn't wire it up.. I would sink a 2m grounding rod into the grass and secure the sign to that

If you know how, they are easy enough to remove later, but I doubt the people who stole your sign would come with tools to do so.

I will admit that when I was a kid, we used to steal signs and mix and match them on people's lawns.

It will likely happen again once the replacement sign is up. I would rig up some night vision cameras from a few angles to catch the perps.

Maybe they needed material for an undertray?

Happened to my neighbor last week too.

The more I hear about why people are voting the way they're voting, the more I'm thinking of this election as the "Anti-Election". When you ask people they just say "I'm voting for Candidate A just to keep Candidate B from winning." It seems the people that are voting for someone because they like them, are in the minority. At least this has been my view of things. YMMV

*not trying to flounder

Adrian_Thompson wrote: my (admitted) prejudices about the other parties supports have just been strengthened considerably

I'm pretty sure I have those same prejudices. I feel like the type of person to berkeley with anothers yard sign is much more common on one side of the aisle than the other. I'm surprised my yard signs are still there.

In reply to RossD:

I feel like thats the case for almost all elections.

I really don't get the logic to that one (aside from kids berkeleying around), if you steal the sign the owner is probably going to buy another, thus giving more money to the campaign they're promoting.

Stefan (Not Bruce) wrote: Maybe they needed material for an undertray?

That's still poaching, coroplast season doesn't start until the evening of November 8th, and even then I feel like front lawns are kinda crossing a line.

An older guy I know has a row of "opposition" signs on a hillside that kept getting run down by a brodozer's pickup. After conferring with a few neighbors about the suspect and the times they rolled through, he constructed a few "stop sticks" to hide amongst the brush between his signs.

Within a few days, sure enough, there was a brodozer sitting off the side of the road about a half-mile from his house with two flat passenger side tires. After removing the stop sticks and replacing the salvageable signs, he took the damaged ones and propped them up on the offending party's truck.

He was hoping the driver's friends routinely went through the area to see his handiwork.

In elections past I have seen signs set on fire in a neighboring subdivision. It was a very elaborate sign with a bunch of hate filled rhetoric about the opposing party on it, but still...

I think there are far better things to get pissed off about, honestly. You have to make a phone call to get the sign replaced, that's all. And it's not going to affect anything anyhow.

There's one sign in our neighborhood, and it's on the lawn of the president of the league of republican women's voters or something like that so it's kind of redundant. I want to get a few Canadian election signs and put them up to mess with people, especially the generic red capital-L Liberal ones.

Stefan (Not Bruce) wrote: Maybe they needed material for an undertray?

I can't wait for free coroplast day this year, I'm going to make my aero great again!

Step 1: good new sign for nominee that you support

Step 2: deface sign

Step 3: put in yard

Opponents of the canadiate that you support won't remove the defaced sign, yet fellow supporters will think the people who support the other side are childish disparaging shiny happy people and rally further behind your side.

That is E36 M3ty. Good luck.

I agree with Kieth that it's probably not something to get too worked up about. That being said, I'm sorry that you were the victim of an intolerant shiny happy person, and/or mischievous kid, and/or car guy looking to make cheap aero bits.

Getting upset over a political sign ? My oh My. what is the world coming too.

My biggest complaint is the ones that are left after the election.

Cheap bastards didn't send me a coroplast sign. It was a thick polyethylene sign with a plastic and thin metal support. Perhaps I would get better quality signs from the opposition?

Everyone is in favor of free speech... until they don't like the speech.

The funny thing is, that no matter which way one leans politically, the general assumption will tend to be that it was 'the other guys' who stole the sign. Brilliant.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: In prior elections I’ve donated early and had my sign out for months prior. This year I’m less enthusiastic about any of the candidates, but the appearance of a yard signs for ‘the other side’ in my neighborhood prompted me to finally donate a few weeks ago and get a sign. I donated...

You have to donate to get a sign? I just take them from other people's yards They make great templates for mocking up splitters and the like.

Seriously though - you think they would be giving them away to anyone and everyone who would display one. Getting someone to pay to advertise for you is some mad PT Barnum skills.

I have two local election candidate signs in my yard and so far nobody seems to care. I live on a busy street with tons of foot traffic, cyclists, and cars.

The only sign that has gone missing was protest sign about a local nature preserve that was closed to the public after some shady maneuvers by the stewards. That one drew some ire from the pissy high brow "I like to garden but I have a grounds keeper" folks that live near me.

I will not flounder this thread, I will not flounder this thread

It's just a sign. It's not changing anyones mind either way. I guess I can understand wanting to balance out the neighborhood, but really there are FAR more important things involved than even the candidates themselves to get angry about instead of a sign.

(examples removed to not flounder thread)

Still the whole trespassy part sucks. Motion sensor flood lights and a horn? Just to give them a good scare. Or cover the replacement sign in glue, so whoever grabs it is stuck to it.