TIRED of her Kamala Harris signs disappearing from her Springfield, Missouri, front yard, Laura McCaskill taped a tracking device to one to see where it might end up.
That led her to a blue Kia sedan in a nearby town, where a young man admitted he had stolen her sign, along with dozens of others, according to a video shot by McCaskill.
"Um, yeah, so if you want them back they're right there," he said as he stood next to a trunk filled with Harris signs.
As the Nov 5 election between Harris and Republican Donald Trump draws near, people across the United States are reporting a rash of yard-sign thefts — and turning to surveillance cameras and GPS trackers to low-tech solutions like glitter and hot peppers to deter would-be thieves.
"The sign game has changed. You can no longer steal and get away with it because guys like us are taking it pretty seriously," said Vincent Panico, a Republican deputy mayor in Readington, New Jersey, who used an Apple AirTag to track a missing yard sign ahead of a primary election earlier this year.
Police found it in the garage of a member of the town committee, John Albanese, a fellow Republican who has feuded with Panico in an intra-party power struggle. Albanese has pleaded not guilty.
His lawyer, Scott Wilhelm, said he was being targeted by Panico and other local rivals.
"They are doing whatever they can to try to get him off the governing body," Wilhelm said.
Campaign signs have been a fixture of the US political landscape since the 19th century, but studies suggest they may not do much to bolster the fortunes of the candidates they advertise.
Still, they are clearly a hit with voters. Roughly 1 in 10 Americans display yard signs for a presidential candidate, according to Florida International University professor Todd Makse.
Those who display them are primarily interested in showing their political allegiances, rather than swaying undecided neighbours.
Clearly, some don't appreciate the display. Indianapolis tech worker Lissa Smith said her Harris sign was stolen from her yard the night she put it up this summer. In its place was a white pillow with "YOU ARE STUPID" written on it.
Smith said she ordered four more campaign signs and posted a warning that any additional theft would prompt her to donate money to several left-leaning groups.
Since then, she has made US$180 in donations and spent close to US$300 on security cameras.
She said she has been heartened that some of her neighbours in her politically mixed neighbourhood have asked where they could get Harris signs of their own.
"It's made me more confident in sharing my views," she said.
Matthew Hurtt, the chair of the Arlington, Virginia, Republican Party, said he had received over 100 complaints of stolen Trump signs in his heavily Democratic area. He has been posting photos and videos of suspects online.
"It raises awareness that there are Republicans in northern Virginia and it raises the awareness of the intolerance of our neighbours," he said.
Last year, a man in Topeka, Kansas, was convicted of aggravated battery for shooting at teens he suspected of stealing Trump signs before the 2020 election and in Michigan an avowed Trump hater ran over an elderly man who was replacing vandalised Trump signs.
Prosecution of sign thieves can be hard, officials say, given the low dollar value of the item stolen and the difficulty of identifying suspects who typically strike at night.
In some cases, the damages can be substantial — at US$20 apiece, the 60 Harris signs found in the car trunk in Missouri would cost US$1,200 to replace.
But the damage extends beyond a sign's value, victims say. Some argue that it violates their free-speech rights and can amount to political intimidation.
"You are disrespecting people's property, you are silencing their opinion," said McCaskill, the Missouri resident who filed a criminal complaint against the young man who admitted to taking her sign.
He said he was inspired by a TikTok video. Police are investigating the incident. Those arrested can face serious penalties.
Michael Shaw, 54, of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, faces up to 12 years in prison and US$55,000 in fines after he was arrested for stealing signs and flags in what police said were 11 separate incidents.
*The writer is from Reuters
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times