Campaign signs stolen and vandalized in Greater Lowell amid rising political tensions

Patricia Pestana stands outside her Chelmsford home on Monday and grins as she shows off her crudely handmade presidential campaign sign. “Harris-Walz 2024” is painted in large blue letters on a large piece of plywood attached to her porch with rope.

Meanwhile, two signs in her garden on quiet and calm Newfield Street warn: ‘Steal my Harris sign? Another donation to Harris!”

There’s a reason for all this, as Pestana explains.

A few days earlier, around 3 p.m. on October 18, Pestana proudly placed two of the more traditional Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign signs in her yard – one on each side of the corner where she lives. The 73-year-old and her husband went out to dinner that evening and when they got home around 10 p.m., they found the signs supporting the Democratic presidential ticket were gone.

The signs were only up for a few hours before someone entered their yard and stole them. Undeterred, Pestana grabbed some blue paint and created her own board, one that is much harder to steal.

“I feel like people are trying to intimidate us and silence us, and that’s very disturbing,” says Pestana, who notes that she has lived on Newfield Street for 40 years. “It reflects the terrible divisions in our country and the lengths some people will go to to silence free speech.”

Pestana reported the theft to Chelmsford police and she said an officer informed her such incidents were not uncommon in the area.

Also in Chelmsford, for example, a large campaign sign with the name of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was cut with a sharp tool along Route 40. Further down the road in Westford, a similar Trump sign was not only cut up, but defaced with red paint, with the message “Free Gaza!”

The theft and vandalism of campaign signs in Tyngsboro prompted Police Chief Shaun Woods to issue a statement on September 30 reminding community members that “these actions are not only unlawful, but deeply counterproductive to the democratic values ​​that are dear to us.”

“I urge all residents to remain respectful,” Woods said. “People’s differences are natural and healthy, especially during election seasons, but resorting to vandalism or theft is not the answer. Let’s focus our energy on constructive dialogue and the power of voting, instead of on material damage and conflict.”

A quick search of the national news shows that the theft and vandalism of campaign signs is a national problem in this tense and polarized election year.

The Kansas City Star reported Tuesday that a Missouri woman whose Harris campaign signs had previously been stolen decided to hide an Apple AirTag on them in case it happened again. When the sign was stolen, she tracked down the alleged thief and discovered an SUV trunk filled with nearly sixty Harris/Walz campaign signs picked from yards.

The Tennessean reported on October 15 that Republican Party officials from Wilson County, Tennessee, have offered a $1,500 reward for information leading to the perpetrator or perpetrators behind the steady theft and vandalism of Trump and J.D. Vance campaign signs. One of the vandalized signs shown in the story had the word “Felon” spray-painted over Trump’s name.

John Cluverius, a political scientist at UMass Lowell, believes the particularly tense atmosphere among voters, reflected in actions like the theft of campaign signs, is partly due to how incredibly close the presidential election is compared to previous elections. He noted that Hillary Clinton appeared to have a large lead over Trump on the eve of the 2016 election, while President Joe Biden appeared to have the 2020 election in hand.

UMass Lowell’s Center for Public Opinion has conducted polls in New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. Cluverius said the only confident conclusion from the polls is that the race is very close.

“I think both sides believe they have a very good chance of winning, and both sides are very, very nervous if things go one way or the other,” Cluverius said. “If people start to feel like anything can happen, I think the temperature will really rise as we approach Election Day.”

Sign stealing and vandalism are certainly nothing new, but with the rise of cell phones and security cameras, Cluverius noted, it has become easier to capture these crimes that might otherwise have gone unreported.

“I also think that in the long run of really pernicious political action, this is probably the least offensive action, but it’s still something that makes people nervous, especially when we’ve seen violent actions at the Capitol and two assassination attempts on a of the main party candidates,” Cluverius added.

As for Pestana, no arrests have been made in connection with the theft of her signs. There was good news. On Tuesday, a neighbor told her he had found two Harris/Walz signs apparently discarded in nearby Varney Park. Believing them to be hers, Pestana placed them back in her garden, and they have remained there since Saturday afternoon.

When asked what she would say to the suspect who stole her signs, Pestana said she would wonder why they would deny her the right to express her opinion when she would never deny them the right to express theirs.

“Do you think stealing my signs will change my mind?” Pestana said. “It just strengthens my resolve.”

Follow Aaron Curtis on X, formerly known as Twitter, @aselahcurtis