A total of 100 posters, some of them in honor of John Fetterman, were swiped from the lawns of an well-off Philadelphia suburb.
The morning of Wednesday, Sandy Gilson noticed four political signs, including one that endorsed Senate candidates John Fetterman, missing from her front yard — for the second time in the span of two weeks that this has occurred. As Gilson is a long-time residents in Tredyffrin Township, an affluent Philadelphia suburb in which she is serving as a member of the committee for her precinct, drove through the neighborhood she saw additional signs — all of them supporting Democrats in the run-up to next month’s midterm elections. They were gone, too.
When she made the decision to report the incident to the police department in her town, police officers already knew the exact location where she would have her notices located in a huge commercial dumpster located in an unfinished mall in the vicinity. How? Because somebody had placed on an Apple AirTag on one of the signs.
“The signs were found after a resident notified our officers of the location of the AirTag,” Lt. Tyler Moyer of the Tredyffrin Township Police Department told BuzzFeed News.
The dumpster was filled with more than 100 political signs that were stolen which all supported Democratic Candidates or Progressive causes, such as sexual rights or Black Lives Matter. Police have said they are scouring through footage of the dumpster, but aren’t able to determine who is the suspect.
AirTags Apple’s tracking devices which look like tiny, white pucks, send Bluetooth signalling to other nearby Apple devices that allow owners to find them (and any other objects they’re connected to) on maps. Since Apple launched AirTags at the end of 2021 many have utilized the trackers to track down lost keys, bags, and pets. AirTags are a source of controversy, due to the fact that they’ve been employed to track innocent victims.
The use of AirTag technology to identify political lawn signs appears to be becoming more popular. In the past the candidate from Florida was able to track an unclaimed political sign that was taken to the home of a rival political party using an AirTag.
Arlene Talley who was Gilson’s best friend who is also a part of the Chester County Democratic Committee who also had signs taken from her front yard was among the first people to appear at the dumpster following the time Gilson handed over the address to her. Within, Talley found 118 signs. “I just started taking them out and putting them in my car,” Talley explained to BuzzFeed News.
The candidate whose sign were taken away included Pennsylvania State Rep. Melissa Shusterman, who is seeking an election to reelect. “Kudos to the technology of an AirTag!” Shusterman said to BuzzFeed News in a phone call not long after tweeting a photo of the signs that were in the trash and accusing “local Republicans” of stealing the signs.
In response to questions about her claim that Republicans were responsible for these thefts Shusterman demurred. “Right now it’s in the hands of our local police,” she explained. “So I believe it’s their job to determine what’s going on. It’s an intruder or is not motivated to do things in a fair manner.”
“It is unfortunate that Representative Melissa Shusterman decided to try to score political points with this issue by using highly charged and divisive rhetoric and pointing blame at local Republicans,” said Raffi Terzian, the chairman of the Republican Party of Chester Country in a statement made to BuzzFeed News. Terzian condemned the thefts and stated that the party been informed of vandalism and theft of Republican signs.
Another element of the investigation which isn’t yet known is who exactly was the person who put the AirTag on the sign. Police refused to reveal the identity of the owner for BuzzFeed News. “This person obviously had signs stolen before,” Gilson explained. “So putting an AirTag on was pretty smart.”
Talley is one of the first who discovered those signs within the garbage she utilizes AirTags herself. She keeps them on her keys as well as her dog. She said she also tucks one into her bag whenever she travels.
