Who is stealing Trump signs?

On Sunday, Oct. 5, a dozen-or-so Trump-Pence and Latinos for Trump signs were placed in the median along Honeycutt Road, just east of State Route 347.

Within 48 hours, they were gone.

A good number of the same signs were also taken around the same time from the corner of Honeycutt and Porter roads.

All of those signs were placed legally in a city-owned right-of-way.

The person or persons who removed them committed a crime under Arizona Revised Statutes. Title 16, Section 1019 declares “it is a class 2 misdemeanor for any person to knowingly remove, alter, deface or cover any political sign of any candidate for public office or in support of or opposition to any ballot measure, question or issue…”

A class 2 misdemeanor carries a maximum punishment of four months in jail, a $750 fine plus surcharges and two years of probation.

Two young men were charged last week in the Tucson area after a Pima County Sheriff’s Department airplane observed one of them remove a Trump-Pence sign and put it in the trunk of their car. The men were arrested by deputies after they were stopped and two political signs were found in the trunk.

Google “sign thefts” and you can read dozens of stories about thefts and vandalism of Trump and Biden signs nationwide in these politically polarizing times. One Iowa businessman pleaded guilty to stealing a Biden sign and then swiping from a gas station about $20 worth of copies of a newspaper that had reported on his criminal case. The story went viral.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, INFRACTION

After the signs disappeared along the western end of Honeycutt Road, InMaricopa placed Trump-Pence signs outside our office and set up a video camera. (Disclosure: Efforts to acquire a couple of Biden signs for our experiment were unsuccessful and we are not suggesting that Biden signs are not stolen.)

We were curious to see if our camera would catch anybody in the act, and how long it might take.

It didn’t take long.

On the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 9, two red-white-and-blue signs were placed next to the driveway of the Honeycutt Business Center, in front of our office. They lasted through the weekend, but about 8:45 a.m. Monday morning a green pickup truck swooped into the parking lot. A young girl exited the passenger side door, walked over to the sign, pulled it out of the ground and took it back to the vehicle, before the driver headed off. (We were only able to watch video of this incident.)

Two new Trump signs were back in place late afternoon that same day, Monday, Oct. 12, when our camera captured a woman wearing a maroon shirt get out of a small, teal-colored wagon, pull one of the signs off of its metal stand and return quickly to the car. The car headed west on Honeycutt.

The next night our cameras captured the driver of a compact blue sedan hit the brakes as the car was exiting the driveway. The passenger side door opened and a man wearing jeans and a baseball cap jumped out, walked quickly to the signs and grabbed up one in each arm. The car headed west on Honeycutt.

On Wednesday, between 6:45 and 9:30 p.m., two more Trump signs were claimed by a man in a dark, Adidas hooded sweatsuit.

All told, six of our signs were taken by four different individuals over five days.

SIGNS SWIPED IN GLENNWILDE

But signs are not just disappearing from places along busy roads, where they might invite the impulsive theft. Residents are reporting they are being taken from their yards.

John Petriello is one of two Glennwilde residents reporting incidents in recent weeks.

In the latest incident, which he discovered Friday morning, somebody trespassed on his yard, carried out vandalism and committed theft by breaking a flagpole out of a holder  – it was mounted 10 feet high on the outside of his garage – to steal a Trump flag, he said.

A day earlier, he had a sign stolen after one was taken from his walled backyard earlier this month. He filed reports with city police.

On Monday, a police spokesman said the department was investigating the two reports of sign thefts and vandalism it had received.

Petriello emailed Mayor Christian Price the day after the first sign was taken to make sure he was aware of the problem.

“It’s not only criminal but I believe it’s also a civil rights (free speech) violation!” Petriello wrote. “I want whoever is caught to be prosecuted to the fullest extent allowed by law.”

In a reply, the mayor told him police Chief Steve Stahl is aware of the problem, adding “I have full confidence that if they witness or are able to get a witness that can verify a suspect violating the law of any kind, even stealing political signs, then they will arrest and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.”

The signs, as a form of political expression, are protected by the First Amendment, Price said.

NO JOKE, HER SIGN WAS GONE

Jeniece Mordt, another Glennwilde resident, put a Trump sign out in her front yard. It lasted about a week before it was taken – even though it was right by the front door, she said.

She thought her kids were playing a joke on her, but when Mordt found out there was no prank, she got angry.

“I was a little pissed,” she said. “We’ve never had an issue in 11 years. It was just too much.”

Petriello said he believed dozens and dozens of political signs – about 95% of them in support of the president, he guesses – are going missing around the city. In his driving around the city, he said he has watched many signs go up, including many right along State Route 347, and then go missing soon after.

A city may not take down a political sign as long as it is in a “public right-of-way” owned or controlled by that jurisdiction,” if the sign supports or opposes a candidate for public office or a ballot measure, and it is not placed in a location hazardous to public safety, obstructs clear vision in the area or interferes with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

But a municipality may prohibit signs on any structure owned by the jurisdiction. Maricopa does not allow them on light standards and traffic signs, nor city-owned railings along State Route 347, for example.

Meanwhile, Mordt said a new sign has gone up in her yard, but she admitted she doesn’t expect this one to last very long, either.