TREDYFFRIN — The only thing more omnipresent during election season than political yard signs is the theft of political yard signs and subsequent lamentations over such mischief.
It is a story as old as electioneering itself: supporters of Candidate A, believing their cause to be just and right and honorable, will surreptitiously remove signs that promote the candidacy of their favorite’s rival, Candidate B. And as sure as the sun rises in the east, at some point supporters of Candidate B set their sights on signs for Candidate A.
Rarely are the stolen signs ever recovered, meaning campaigns have to expend more money to replace the pilfered political placards.
Enter technology.
On Wednesday, members of the Tredyffrin Democratic Committee were able to recover more than 100 political signs that had been stolen from Chester County homeowners’ yards and public right of ways overnight after they were alerted to their location by township police.
A spokeswoman for state Rep. Melissa Shusterman, the Schuylkill resident who is running for re-election to the 157th Legislative District seat, said police told a committeewoman that one of the sign owners had attached an Apple Air Tag digital tracker to one of the signs that had been taken from their yard. The homeowner was able to determine its location — behind a restaurant and brew pub on Swedesford Road in Berwyn — and told police where it was.
Deb Woolson, Shusterman’s campaign manager, said in a phone interview Thursday that committeewomen Sandy Gilson and Arlene Talley then drove to the restaurant Wednesday morning, found 118 signs stacked in a dumpster, retrieved them, and cleaned them up and returned a good number of them to service by the afternoon.
“Modern technology, right?” Woolson said. “That was brilliant for someone to do. I never would have thought to do that.”
Shusterman posted a photo of the recovered signs on her campaign Facebook page and lauded the Air Tag discovery. She also thanked her “Dumpster divers,” Gilson and Talley.
Woolson said that she was unaware of just who the homeowner was who attached the tracking device, but would love to thank him or her.
There is no identification of a suspect in the mass theft, although because all of the signs taken were for Democratic candidates — Josh Shapiro for governor, Chrissy Houlahan for Congress, John Fetterman for U.S. Senate and Shusterman for state Legislature — suspicion would fall on someone who votes Republican.
Woolson, a veteran of political campaigns, agreed to was not uncommon for signs to go missing in the days leading up to an election. “But 118 in one night is a pretty high number. And we don’t need any more vandalism.”
As of noon, a Tredyffrin police spokesman could not be reached for comment on the matter. But police were apparently studying video from the shopping center to try to identify the vehicle that pulled up to the dumpster to unload them, township police Lt. Tyler Moyer was quoted as saying.
In Chester County, there have been a few arrests for political sign thefts, so the crime is taken seriously. In 2019, a former Kennett supervisor was charged with theft of signs from a resident’s yard and eventually ordered to complete community service for the offense.
To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.
