Stolen Obama Signs Mean More $$ for the Democratic Party in Athens, Ga.

The close-knit community on Catawba Avenue is mostly in favor of reelecting President Barack Obama, and they have the yard signs to prove it… or sometimes they do.

There have been numerous reports of political signs stolen from locals’ yard, but this neighborhood has turned theft into fuel for the Democratic Party.

Catawba Avenue in Five Points is only eight houses long, but its neighbors are closer than some families. Here, the people have handled the yard sign thefts in the same way they handle everything: they banded together.

Janice Flory and her neighbors are so close, Flory’s six-year-old daughter has five yards to play in. If there’s a power outage, someone goes to check on Flory’s elderly neighbor. And recently, any neighbor who passes by Flory’s house asks how she’s feeling, and if her bronchitis is getting better.  

A few weeks ago, all of their Obama yard signs were stolen in the middle of the night, but the one Mitt Romney yard sign at the end of the street was left alone.

“At first I was upset,” said Flory. “It’s trespassing, it’s stealing and it’s violating my First Amendment rights. But then I realized that I had a choice. I could get mad, or I could show my daughter how to turn the other cheek.”

So Flory donated more money to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in Athens and picked up six more signs.

She distributed the signs out to her neighbors that same day, and for two weeks, the yard signs remained untouched. But once again, in the middle of the night, the Obama yard signs disappeared.             

“It kind of makes me want to just rub poison ivy all over my sign, but that’s probably not setting a good example,” said Flory.

Her frustration may have grown, but her tactics remained proactive. Flory went back to the DNC and donated enough money for double the amount of signs she picked up before.

“I joked with my neighbors that this round was on me,” said Flory. “But I made sure to distribute them beyond our neighborhood so the signs would have a chance of being seen.”

Many locals face the same problem as Flory’s neighborhood. According to Bert Richmond, “it’s the worst year [he’s] ever seen” for yard sign thefts in the 15 years he’s worked with the Athens DNC.  

“A lot people have been donating to the DNC to replace their stolen yard signs, and it’s great to know that people feel so passionately about our party,” said Karen Solheim, another DNC activist.

Although, Solheim has witnessed many Democratic supporters come into the headquarters, complaining of sign theft, she’s unsure if the thefts are endemic to her own party.

Matt Brewster, the chairman of the Athens GOP, said, “there’s been whole neighborhoods who’ve had their Romney signs taken. I’ve heard of one neighborhood that had 15 signs stolen.”

Brewster has also heard of Republican signs being stolen both on the Eastside and in the Five Points area, however he believes that in some cases it may not be an issue of party.

“I think it’s probably immature kids going around and stealing yard signs. I know of at least one neighborhood where all of their yard signs got stolen. They took Democratic signs and Republican signs.”

Despite both parties acknowledging the recent rash of yard sign thefts, the Athens Clarke County Police Department says that the number of police reports on yard sign thefts is drastically down than it has been in recent years.

In Flory’s case, her neighborhood only filed one police report even though there were 20 signs stolen.

“I think our neighborhood had a good response. Somebody filed a police report. Someone notified the Friends in Five Points listserv. And I bought more signs,” Flory said. “I feel like we all shouldn’t file police reports… They’ve got better things to do.”

One of Flory’s neighbors on nearby Highland Avenue, Martha Walker, called the police after the second incident, but she didn’t filed a report.

“The police told me we should just bring the signs in at night,” said Walker. “And they offered to start patrolling our street, so that helps.”

Although the person or people behind the yard sign thefts remain a mystery, Walker, Flory and the rest of the community around Catawba Avenue don’t seem too concerned.

“Whoever keeps stealing our signs, just keeps giving more money to our party,” White said. “So you can come steal my sign anytime you want.” 

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Mistakes in the original version of this story have been corrected.