Hey! Don't Steal That Obama Sign, The World Is Watching

It's become a mini-sensation. After two Obama/Biden '08 signs were stolen from a front yard in Portland, Oregon, scores of armchair detectives all over the world got on the case.

When the second sign disappeared, the homeowner, whose proud user-name is "Poverty Kids' Teacher," fashioned a new one by hand and enlisted her 16-year-old son to set up a camera inside the house to monitor any activity, lest it too should be stolen.

Clever son, now known as SignKid, did better. Having set up the camera, he streamed the vision through a window and out to the world via Ustream.tv and then bingo -- before the family could adjust to their new celebrity status, the view from their living area was being monitored by amateur sleuths in Florida, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Boston, Sacramento, and even further afield in Belgium, Sri Lanka, Greece, Canada and way downunder in Australia.

"Lawn-Cam" is addictive. Despite being set up in a quiet, pleasant neighborhood (one commenter asked "Where's Mr. Rogers?") the camera's beam is directed on to a somewhat bland scene -- a simple little garden frontage with nothing much else visible, other than a three-car garage on the other side of the street.

Viewers have been enthusiastic in their guarding of the DIY sign, many staying online for several hours and calling on their fellow cyber-cops when forced by the call of nature, or ravenous hunger, to temporarily abandon their posts. A robust camaraderie was evident in this thread... "I need to go to the bathroom. Call me if anything happens." ... The response? "One word for you: Depends!")

At one stage, Obama Sign CCTV1 was the 6th most viewed stream on the site. "What are the other 5?" someone asked. "Live executions" came the instant reply.

Of course, politics is never far from mind. This is an Obama sign, after all. When a poster sent off a clumsy typo, a fellow sign-watcher's comment was pure gold: "Boy, you Palin'd the crap out of that sentence..."

Overnight, Portland time, things got a bit slow. Each time a car passed, viewers posted alerts: "Car. Carrrrrr" and when a garbage truck stopped within view in the early hours, the site went wild. But even when there's nothing much happening, the chat is compelling. There's a sense of "We're all in this together..." And "We're all quite mad." Indeed, the phrase "We need to get a life" seems to pop up on the hour.

The home owners, or 'hosts' as they have been dubbed, made an elegant appearance in the early evening of Day 1, bowing to their audience. And one viewer wanted to clone the teenage son: "I have electronics here I can't control."

As AKM said on Mudflats...

"We've seen squirrels, neighbors, passing cars, suspicious kids on bikes. The wind has blown, the rain has come. The sign has been covered in Saran Wrap before our very eyes to shield it from the elements. We've seen the family cat. We've chatted and laughed. And occasionally we've been inundated by trolls. All in all, a very entertaining evening....staring at a sign."

Who needs television?

Comments

[shugie]

Sigh. Mark my family down as one who has had an Obama sign stolen. Like others, we were thrilled to finally get our sign after weeks of waiting. And even a tad surprised, I admit, that it stayed up. But yesterday, someone came onto our lawn and took it, frame and all. I'm going to make a homemade Obama sign today (love that roofing-ta­r-on-the-b­ack idea), along with a sign beside it that says "Hey, thieves, this is my first amendment right to have this sign"".

[heyhon]

My son got his sign stolen off his lawn by his mother-in law! She is an evangelical mcCain supporter. He doesn't get upset easily but this made him livid. When he got it back she and her husband where yelling about how could he vote for someone who pals around with terrorist. They started mis-quoting Obama's books (they haven't read) and pulling things out of context. All faux news talking points. My son knows Obama's policies and gave it right back to them. I was so proud of him.

[StretchL]

We have also had trouble with stolen signs over the past week. They take them as fast as I can replace them. We just put our new one up and will be painting the back of it with roofing tar as soon as the sun goes down. Wish we could figure out a way to hook up the deer fence from our garden, so we are open to suggestions from the electrically saavy.

[TempeAZ]

Same thing happened to us and caught her on still and video. I posted the video to CNN's iReport. Why do people think this is okay?

[Trisha-ifw]

My sign got stolen today! I ordered it 3 weeks ago and it just got here today. It was only out there for 3 or 4 hours and it was gone! Sometime between 6 and 7 this evening while we were both home.

I'll order more - but I don't know if they will get here before the election. I'm in St. Louis - is it taking everyone this long to get signs in?

McCain signs everywhere around here though ...

[Hope4ChangeNow]

People are so ridiculous. They really think that taking a sign that most of us paid for out of our own pocket is going to change who we vote for. They think it's going to change the movement. We've had issues in our own little community. This Saturday is National Service Day and on behalf of Barack Obama and NSD, we wanted to put together a fundraiser for our local Red Cross Chapter, but due to ethical crappy laws, we are not allowed to let people know that those people who have been inspired by Barack Obama are wanting to "give back to the community". America's minds are so twisted and so many ridiculous rules and control issues.

I don't much care for McCain/Palin, but I sure wouldn't disrespect the sign owner of their right to choose. I might verbally debate with them, but I wouldn't mess with their sign.

Onward and upward America. Get over your hatred and don't try to avoid your true issues of racism by throwing out all of the other disproven controversies (sp?) in regard to Barack. It's so pathetic. http://www.fightthesmears.com/ and http://www.factcheck.org/

Obama/Biden 08

[appfan]

I live in NC and just discovered tonight that my Obama sign has been stolen out of my front yard. I will be replacing it with another one tomorrow. I caught an old man trying to take my bumper sticker off my car. You would think he would just walk away, but instead he confronted us about having an Obama sticker on our car. It was amazing (and scary).
Obama '08

[ExternalObserver]

It is with a heavy heart that I have to report that O'Merkley, the gnome who was helping to guar the sign, was callously smashed to pieces by two female vandals last night. They also stole the umbrella he was wearing to protect him from the rain.

[winningticket]

Back in '04, I had a Kerry sign on my lawn here in S.E. Louisiana (hardly a bastion of liberalism). I'm glad to see that people are doing something about these haters.

[mcantwell]

A theft occurred last night. Two girls were seen stealing at 11:00 p.m. There is video evidence.

[humain]

ha ha ha some funny things us humans get up to.... great to meet u today pat....
lets all hope that something magic happens and the u.s.a becomes what its ment to be...

[kellygrrrl]

I have had two stolen from my yard. And we have cameras. Both times it was teens, and my daughter knew who they were.

She shamed them mercilessly on MySpace and at school. Word spread quick.

Have had no probs since.

My new banner on my garage says "ENOUGH!"

I get cheers every day from people passing by

[AslanRules]

...and we blog like mad when the trolls show up. Topics: water conservation, weather, etc. I guess trolls can't read that fast!

[teacheng]

If this were a conservative site, and a McCain sign had been stolen, everyone would be howling for Obama sign blood. Reassuring that I am not on the side of evil.

[SoonerThought]

I was a candidate for Legislature in Oklahoma and actually caught and photographed one of my opponent's operatives kicking over one of my signs. We confronted him with our camera in hand and I think he wet his pants a little. However, my signs still went missing or were defaced...and I lost the election, too. Lot of fun, running as a Dem in Oklahoma, I can tell you.