Political Prank or Partisan Attack? Partisan Vandals Target Campaign Signs

Oct. 21, 2008 — -- Across the nation, supporters of both Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are angry that political signs are being vandalized or disappearing altogether.

McCain supporter Kittye Sears, 50, of Manassas, Va., awoke one morning to find her two McCain yard signs replaced by two Obama campaign signs.

"I found it sort of offensive," Sears told ABCNews.com. "You feel a little bit violated that someone would just come into your yard."

Vandals recently grabbed a McCain lawn sign from the headquarters of the Arkansas Republican Party in Little Rock.

"It's frustrating, but at the same time I know both sides see this kind of vandalism every election cycle," said Elizabeth Aymond of the Republican Party of Arkansas told ABCNews.com.

"It's unfortunate that some people feel this is what they have to stoop to, but I think it only helps out the candidate that they're trying to hurt," Aymond said.

Whether it is a political prank or a more serious case of vandalism, police say there is little they can do.

"This occurs about every four years," said Lucy Caldwell, public information officer for the Fairfax County, Va., police department, who said her department is getting more than 10 reports a day of campaign signs being stolen or defaced.

"There's not a whole lot of follow up we can do if we don't have a witness of either a person who's been doing it or a vehicle description," Caldwell told ABCNews.com.

Fed up, some voters are taking matters into their own hands, installing cameras, signs and turning to the Web to protect their partisan signs.

McCain supporter Mary Lee Carello of Centreville, Va., has installed a surveillance camera to catch the perpetrators who she said stole her McCain yard sign.

She put up a homemade sign of her own that reads "Though shalt not steal! -God."

"We just feel very violated," Carello told ABC affiliate WJLA. "Somebody's trespassing on your property and stealing."

As first reported by the Wall Street Journal, Preston Fosback, 16, and his mother, Kristine of Portland, Ore., had their Obama signs stolen repeatedly from their front yard.

The signs kept getting stolen until Fosback set up a video camera inside the house and trained it on the sign, and hooked up the camera to a Web site that provided live streaming.

People from around the world are reportedly taking "shifts" watching the live streaming video to protect the sign.

In McCain's home state of Arizona, two Obama supporters posted a YouTube video showing a woman caught in the act of stealing an Obama sign off their lawn and throwing it in the back of her SUV.

Obama supporter Melinda Applegate and her sister Ellen Pierce of Phoenix set up the camera after numerous signs were stolen.

"They're trying to take away my right. That is very upsetting," Pierce told the AP in this video posted on YouTube.

"They're actually donating to the Obama campaign whether they know it or not," said Pierce, who has given money to the Obama campaign to replace her stolen signs.

Reports of stolen or defaced partisan signs have emerged across the United States.

In Lynn Haven, Fla., a 17-year-old boy was charged with criminal mischief and criminal trespass for allegedly damaging an Obama sign. Police in Appleton, Wis., said last week they received nearly 20 complaints of McCain signs stolen from one neighborhood.

Trespassing on someone's property and stealing or defacing property is a criminal offense

But some victims of lawn-sign attacks are relieved to find out it's more of a political prank than a partisan attack. After Sears' two McCain signs were replaced by Obama signs, she heard later from a neighbor whose Obama signs had been swapped for McCain signs.

"Instead of an attack directly on me, I guess someone was just sort of playing around and switched our signs," Sears said.

But north of the border, partisan lawn signs in Canada have appeared to inspire a more sinister spate of attacks.

Canadian law enforcement officials in Toronto have established a task force to investigate attacks on at least 30 voters who each had lawn signs promoting the Liberal Party candidate in the federal election that ended this month.

The Toronto victims awoke one morning during the election to find the brake lines on their cars cut. Vandals had also severed their telephone and cable lines, gouged political grafitti into automobiles, and scrawled graffiti on homes attacking prominent Liberal Party politicians.

Law enforcement officials say lawn-sign looting is upsetting for people in an election year where political passions can run high.

Police advise citizens to keep their cool if it happens to them.

"It's not one [candidate's] sign more than the other, so it's hard to say who the thieves are," Caldwell said.

"It's not out of the ordinary to have this happen," Caldwell said. "So just be patient and tolerant."