No surprise, somebody stole my Obama-Biden lawn sign
It happened just as I thought it would. I got home from school in the early afternoon on Friday, and by the time a friend came over to my house around 5:00, it was gone.
Somebody stole my Obama lawn sign in broad daylight in a nice neighborhood in Brighton. Instead of going into deep detail about what a pain in the butt it was for me to get one of those lawn signs, seeing as they had to be reserved because of limited supply; rather, I would like to ask for some advice on how to make sure it doesn’t happen again if I manage to get another one.
I thought about several different techniques, but I’m not sure about the effectiveness of any of them:
- staple it to a tree
- tape it to a tree
- hang it from a tree
- move it to the middle of my lawn, much closer to my house
- put another sign next to it that says something like, “do not steal this sign”
The problem with 1 and 2 is that the thieves could just rip it from the tree. The problem with 3 is that I don’t know if it’s legal or how effective the sign would be. The problem with 4 is that it would make the sign very difficult to see. And the problem with 5 is that I don’t know if that’s legal either, or whether it would act as a deterrent to people who think that stealing is ok.
So I need some suggestions. What do you, the readers of RT, think would be the best way to avoid having my lawn sign stolen again?
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McCain supporters hate reading and showering so put a book or some soap in front of your Obama signs
I have a bumper sticker on my car and also a big sign on the inside of a large window in my house, facing the street.
My McCain-Palin sign was taken from my front yard in Gates.
I guess these incidents show that there are some rude, quasi-criminal Republicans in Brighton and some rude, quasi-criminal Democrats in Gates.
Face it AirBare, there are a lot of current citizens who don’t respect freedom of speech and expression and don’t understand or respect the rules of civil society. Unfortunately, they exist on the fringes of every political persuasion.
All you can do is put up another sign.
I would coat your next sign with vasoline
I definitly agree with you. It happens on both sides.
Airbare - I have an extra sign is you’d like it. Only problem is that it got delivered to me with the wrong size bracket thingy (it’s too big for the sign). Did they steal just the sign part or the whole thing?
That’s actually a good idea.
Get some black auto grease and smear it on the backside of the sign around the side edges where the thief puts his or her hands and fingers
They may still steal the sign, but they may leave it and will one way or the other have a mess on their own hands.
My Obama sign was stolen from my yard in Gates last Friday night. They left the Massa one though.
Whomever stole your McCain-Palin sign thought they were doing you a favor. j/k
Seriously, I respect what you wrote here. It’s truly the kind of discourse we need. The fringes of any movement, be they political, religious or otherwise are often where the danger lies.
I just got my sign today! Yippee! Stolen in less than seven hours. Downloaded pdf for a new sign. Sent it to FedEx website. I’ll pick up 20 plain paper 8.5×11 signs tomorrow for $2.14! I’ll throw together a sign from some scrap wood and staple my FedEx Obama sign to it. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
[...] Lawn signs are disappearing. This post highlights some nastiness in the SD-56th. There is simply no place - on either side - for this nonsense. [...]
It’s ridiculous here on Elmwood Avenue in Brighton between 590 and 12 Corners. Our first Obama sign was defaced two weeks ago with a clown with a can of spray paint who turned it into NObama. But it was worse up the street, where some handmade signs from an Orthodox Jewish family were defaced with “oven bait” written across them, along with one other further towards me that had “Ni**er Lover” on it. Any house that has a slightly obscured view to the street is at high risk, especially on the main thoroughfares. Side streets don’t seem to have a lot of signs this year for any candidate. Robach signs are about the most common in those places. The only McCain Palin sign I’ve seen was put up by my next door neighbor. We have to have a chat.
Here is the worst part. My stupid partner (who I am still mad at), was awake at 3:00am that early Sunday morning, heard the clown shaking up his paint can, and instead of calling 911, he went outside and yelled “oh, Nobama, that is real clever” in a sarcastic tone, leading the coward dressed in a hoodie (college age white guy) to run up the street. He then comes back inside and … does nothing. An hour later, when I woke up, I get the story and am livid to discover he did EVERYTHING wrong possible. We had a police report taken anyway. I can’t believe what he did and didn’t do. I would have loved to see the police nail this jerk.
We managed to get the white paint off and made some modifications (red and blue tape works magic to cover defacement) and put the sign back.
It was stolen last night, along with the one I got for the neighbors across the street.
I had managed to secure five Obama signs (these things are very hard to get your hands on) for friends and family and to keep one in reserve, and it was a good thing I did.
At this point, the only thing you can really do is:
1) Take the sign it at night and replace it in the morning. This is what the Brighton Police are advising. They want to catch these jerks, but someone has to call 911 when it’s in progress so they can nail them. In the meantime, most of the mischief occurs overnight so you can protect your signs somewhat this way.
2) Obtain extras for the last week and simply replace them.
The only possible good thing out of stolen signs is that they might be taken by people who really want an Obama sign to put in their own yard, so they are not actually always being destroyed. If I notice my custom sign around down (with a red and blue tape stripe down one side), I’ll know where it came from.
Somewhere downtown, there is supposed to be a group that is selling these signs for $1 apiece, but I am not sure of the particulars.
I also have signs for Hasman, Massa, and one of the local judge races, and those signs are never touched. Only the Obama sign.
I’ve mounted a webcam in the bedroom window which seems to actually get a good view of my Obama sign now and thanks to the way too bright lighting on Elmwood, does seem to be letting me record all of the action.
3 down and another going up.
What these D’bags don’t realize is that I have a huge F’ing printer and I’ll run it all day long if need be.