The Case of the Missing Yard Sign

12 Oct 2008 By

Our Obama/Biden yard signWe were so excited to pick up a yard sign. As I run around our neighborhood in Eden Prairie, I see an awful lot of right-leaning yard signs. Except for directly across the street from us where there seem to be more left-leaning yard signs.

Point being, we wanted to represent. We live in a townhouse, in a cul-de-sac-esque complex. We’ve seen nary a yard sign in our little area. One night recently we were out for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Minneapolis, and it happens to be right next to the local Obama campaign office. We happily picked up a yard sign and put it up as soon as we got home. We have a backyard but nobody can see back there. That little patch of dirt with the tree is the only space we have in front of the house. We share it with the neighbors and I believe technically that’s community property. We purposely put it on our side of the tree, even though it’s less visible as you’re driving/biking/walking past.

A couple days later we came home and the sign was uprooted from the dirt and laying down. We stood it back up. A few days later, this past Friday, we came home from work to find the sign completely missing.

!!!

I’m pissed.

Maybe it just got stolen, which I think is crappy, but okay.

If, for whatever reason, it’s prohibited by the association rules and someone decided to take it down and abscond with it for that reason, that’s bullshit. One, it’s a stupid rule. I don’t complain about the seasonal flags and cheesy shit people put in that exact same space in front of their houses. Two, if you took it because it’s against the rules, leave me a note. Lean the damn thing up against the house and stick a note to it and tell me why you moved it. So that way I will know. Put it in your garage and leave me a note on my door and let me at least come get it from you. Don’t just take my shit.

I’ve composed several angry letters to the association in my head. Missy offered to (calmly) inquire about it, so in the meantime I’m stewing and coming up with reasons to end up near the campaign office so I can get another one.

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  • http://www.caseyoc.info Casey

    I’m waiting for ours to get stolen. It’ll have been in our yard one week tomorrow, and there are literally NO other political signs on the entire street. I’m hoping that means Idahoans are jaded enough on this administration that they are okay with anybody. (That’s the best I can hope for around here.)

  • Karl

    My parents live in Northern Minnesota, not only was their yard sign stolen but while they were camping someone peeled their Obama bumper sticker off their car.

  • http://sorenson.blogspot.com sornie

    At least you felt comfortable placing an Obama sign in your circle of yard. I’d be fearful of vandalism to my house in my neighborhood if I did the same based on conversations I’ve had with and heard from my neighbors. Some of what they say is so far beyond hateful that I can’t even come up with words for it.

  • David

    There’s some big questions whether a HOA can ban political signs. A lot of First Amendment scholars think that if a ban were challenged in court, it wouldn’t hold up. Some states have actually passed laws specifically protecting them.

    Your case may be complicated by the fact that where you’re placing it is actually communal property. They probably have more leeway to control that than if you were posting it somewhere that was your exclusive use.

    Still comes across as pretty passive-aggressive.

  • http://swirlspice.com Erica

    If/when we get it back (or when we get a new one), I’m tacking it up on the side of the house. Now I just want to be contrary.

  • ash

    erica, it’s ash…we’ve met a few times a while back through reanne, tiffany, autumn, etc. funny thing, i was searching for missing lawn sign testimonials and viola, there you were! my sign for O went missing 2 weeks ago from my yard in cambridge. it had been up less than a week. i watched the city truck pull up, take it and leave. i was working from home and on a call that i couldn’t hang up in that moment. when i called the city? no knowledge of any such incident. sh*tballs.

    my signs are now double-bungeed to my trees. sorry you don’t own any trees. boo!

    keep on being contrary in the free world!

    be well,
    ash

  • http://www.kazoofus.com KathyHowe

    I wonder if a HOA trumps state law????

    http://www.sos.state.mn.us/home/index.asp?page=944

  • http://www.thenewmediadiva.com Rashunda

    Can’t you stick something icky on it like Super Glue with cayenne pepper in it?:-)

  • MIssy

    I find it odd that the VP of our association who lives kitty-corner from us has not been seen since the sign disappeared. Usually we can’t leave the house without bumping into him out watering the flowers or walking his dog. I do want to ask him if he has any info. My follow-up solution is to get three signs and post them in our windows.

  • Nancyga

    hello, i live in ga and my sign hadn’t been up for a week and it mysteriously disappeared as well yesterday afternoon. It was the first Obama sign I had seen in my area of the county. But up and down the street you see McCain – Palin everywhere. I’m going to the campaign office today to get another.

  • http://swirlspice.com Erica

    Enh, the more I think about it, the more I think it may have just gotten stolen. I’m still a little salty, though.

    I’m willing to make a special trip for more signs at this point.

  • Pingback: State Law on Campaign Yard Signs | Minneapolis Metblogs

  • http://www.dustbury.com/ CGHill

    My own thinking runs toward “Put up a second sign, preferably larger than the first.”

    In my Oklahoma City neighborhood, Obama signs outnumber McCain signs by something like 5 to 2.

  • http://swirlspice.com Erica

    Someone commented on my Metblog post that Obama yard signs run $7? We didn’t get charged for ours (which I was expecting), but the guy behind the desk was near-incoherent as well. Maybe we were supposed and I would have, though I would have balked at $7. I was thinking more like $2.

  • Pingback: State Law on Campaign Yard Signs | fresh.mn

  • jimbob

    i live in a extreme liberal part of uptown minneapolis with political signs everywhere, mostly Obama. I was the 2nd on the street to put up a McCain sign on Halloween evening, before Sunday it was knocked down 3 times, and before dark it was stolen. The neightbor had the same issues as on Monday it was gone. I don’t understand how someone stealing or knocking down yard signs thinks that is going to help their candidate in any way, regardless of party. Very childish no matter what.