Northport Homeowner Has Political Signs Stolen, Later Pardons Suspected Teen

NORTHPORT, Ala. (WBRC) – A Northport woman says she caught someone on camera stealing political signs from her yard.

According to Tamaria Madison, a homeowner in Northport, she found a note left on one of two signs she had in her front yard on September 29th.

Madison said the note was political in nature and made a comparison between the two presidential candidates.

“I removed the note and didn’t think anything of it,” Madison said.

On October 6, Madison said she encountered another situation in her garden; this one much more brazen.

“Two signs were taken down in the yard and we noticed it around 1am that afternoon. Everyone here has a wide variety of beliefs and everyone respects each other’s beliefs and so I went back to the Democratic headquarters and put up some more signs,” Madison said.

At this point, Madison chose to place her new political signs closer to her home, knowing that the doorbell camera would capture anyone trying to capture the signs. Sure enough, it happened again and was caught on camera in broad daylight four days later.

“Three signs were removed. The person had their head and face covered and was fast and in good shape and was able to strategically run around the yard and pull up three,” Madison said.

And then, a turn of events. A confession, an apology and three stolen posters were returned. It turned out that the suspect was a teenager. His mother found out about the robbery after hearing about it on social media and brought her son face-to-face with Tamaria Madison over the weekend.

“He apologized and I’m a forgiving person, you know what I’m saying. If he didn’t mean it, he didn’t show it, but I hope he learned something from this experience and his few minutes of social media fame,” Madison said.

According to Madison, the young man confessed to stealing three posters, but insisted that he had no connection with the note or the theft of the first two posters, still a mystery to Tamaria Madison.

“I didn’t know if it was the weather,” she said.

For now, though all is forgiven, Tamaria Madison has three of her five signs in her yard with the doorbell camera running.

Madison says the young man never said why he stole the signs.

Northport Police say they have had no reports of political signs being stolen regularly and will drop the case if Madison decides not to pursue charges, something Madison says he plans to do.

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