Keep safe out there. Also, if you lose a yard sign then get another one and paint the posts with transmission grease. You might or might not lose that one but the one after that will stay put. I would recommend motion-activated sprinklers, but I hear that it’s cold up there right now.
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jeffreyw
And don’t forget to eat your breakfast.
Earl
Yabut motion-detector lights won’t freeze and crack.
Perhaps a wildlife camera would be better…
mark
I duct taped some razors on the wooden stakes of my Kerry ’04 posters in my yard.
Tim F.
@mark: FYI, that would probably count as a booby trap and make you criminally liable for injuries.
Scott
As crazy as all of Walker’s stunts have been, I’m not sure it would really surprise me if the threatening calls were coming from Walker’s employees.
cmorenc
I like the grease-on-the-posts idea, except that most yard signs can (and are) pulled up simply by grabbing the bottom of the sign part itself and pulling up, never touching the posts. You’d have to grease the bottom part of the sign itself in some fashion for this to really work well.
Neverthess, I appreciate that you’ve got me thinking how to keep my Obama 2012 yard signs from disappearing at the hands of some neighborhood wingnut’s kids at night like they did in 2008.
Brian R.
Wildlife cameras are the way to go.
What was that contest where a candidate and his wife were caught on film ripping out an opponent’s signs?
dslak
@jeffreyw: You just gave me heartburn.
Anonymous At Work
Two other ideas:
Shotgun + rocking chair. Go classic in the “Keep out of my yard” approach.
Grumpy Old Men. Pranks, yes. Inspiration, yes. What they deserve. Yup!
smith
@cmorenc:
I was tired of my signs disappearing so I did something drastic.
I put dog crap on the bottom of my Obama signs in 2008 and when someone tried to steal them one night they got dog crap all over their hands. The people who were trying to steal them just left them lying in the yard and must have been freaked out by having dog crap on their hands.
I know it’s smelly and disgusting, but it worked. I don’t know if I would do it again though, maybe the grease is a better idea.
The Other Bob
Back in the day, my Dad’s Kerry/Edwards sign kept being run over – as in big truck tires through his lawn to run over the sign.
After this happened twice, my Dad put up 2 signs, with a 2×4 frame sandwiched in the middle.* The sign was still run over the next day, but the truck left behind some broken plastic and a large oval Ford emblem from the grill of an F-150.
*Consult an attorney before initiating the construction of any sign which could potentially damage a perpetrator’s vehicle. Always follow local ordinances and state and federal statute.
Justin
Thank you for spelling “lose” correctly. I can’t tell you how many people on the internet can’t seem to spell that word!
Xecky Gilchrist
There’s always the old shit moat idea.
Brian R.
@The Other Bob:
I like the 2×4 solution, but I would’ve gone with a few boards in the grass with roofing nails sticking up out of them.
I’m no lawyer, but I can’t imagine there’s any court in the country that would hold a homeowner responsible for any damage done to a trespasser on the property.
Mnemosyne
@Brian R.:
IANAL either, but I think the distinction would be between doing damage to the trespasser’s person and doing damage to the trespasser’s property. So injuring the trespasser’s hands by boobytrapping the sign with razor blades could get you in trouble, but you might not be legally liable for damaging the trespasser’s truck with a similar set-up.
kideni
I’ve heard that creosote is a good trim for signs–stinky and hard to remove. There are also some paints that take a long time dry (as in months) and are really hard to get off; their intended use is to identify someone who tried to climb in through a window or other unusual entry point.
The goons are nervous. We got over 100,000 signatures in the first four days, and that was before the weekend with the big rally in Madison (seemed like old times!) and all sorts of petition-gathering around the state.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
God, these people suck. It really does show them up for what they are, though, quasi-fascists; hell, maybe they’re full fascists, I don’t know. But they have no respect for democracy or self government or other peoplr’s rights. Democracy is just jim-dandy with them as long as the elections come out the way they want them to. As soon as the voters don’t want to do things their way, though, they throw aside all their trappings of reasonableness and the violence inherent in the system shines through.
rjnerd
Axle grease is too easy to clean off. Instead go to an industrial supply company, and get a tube or two of Dykem High Spot Blue. (places like MSC industrial, your local hardware won’t know what you are talking about) Its basically a mix of vaseline and a permanent blue dye, and is used by machinists when fitting parts together. Its other use, back in the days when all telephones were black, and American companies actually employed tool and die makers, was to give the foreman blue ear syndrome.
Its harmless, waterproof, doesn’t wash off, and never dries. Put on a pair of rubber gloves, and grease up the posts.
By their hands ye shall know them. Any clothing or car upholstery it gets on will carry the marks forever. Their skin will carry the color until it flakes off. (I know from personal experience, even with hard scrubbing, it takes days to remove)