Campaign sign delivers shocking message
By Jay Price, Staff Writer Comment on this story
CHAPEL HILL — After Shawn Turschak saw two sets of McCain-Palin campaign signs disappear from his yard within hours of being planted, he took some unconventional steps to protect the latest pair.
He ran wires from his house and hooked them into a power source for an electric pet fence. Then he mounted a surveillance camera in a nearby tree and wired it to a digital recorder to identify the thieves.
Tuesday afternoon the camera saw this: A nine-year-old-year-old neighbor trotted up with an Obama-Biden sign in his hand, grabbed a handful of volts as he touched the McCain-Palin sign, then quickly ran away.
A few minutes later the boy’s father, Andrew Noble, was at Turschak’s door, demanding an explanation from Turschak’s 13-year-old daughter, who called her parents to say there was a man there yelling at her. They got home within minutes and soon received another visitor: an Orange County sheriff’s deputy.
The corner where the signs are posted is a prominent point in the Oak Crest subdivision — which is just south of Chapel Hill — so it’s maintained by the homeowners association.
It’s far enough from Turschak’s home that it’s not obviously part of his yard, and the boy’s mother, Johanna Gisladottir, said she and other neighbors thought it was community property. They were troubled, she said, that someone had apparently decided to claim the corner on behalf of the Republican Party.
Her son — who she declined to name — had dashed off with the Obama sign on his own, she said, after being inspired by a discussion she had with a neighbor about adding one to the mix.
“I don’t know what his intention was when he ran out, or I would not have allowed him to leave,” Gisladottir said.
“He may have wanted to see how they were put together so he could figure out how to put the Obama on, but I honestly don’t think he had a concrete plan.”
The boy’s father told an investigator that the boy had been trying to pull the sign up so that he could see how it was constructed, a spokesman for the sheriff’s department said. Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass said he had consulted with the district attorney and didn’t plan to file charges in the incident.
If he was trying to damage or remove the sign then he would clearly be wrong, Gisladottir said. Still, she said, there’s no justification to electrifying signs that children can touch, no matter how modest the shock.
Turschak, who has a degree in electrical engineering, said that he had tested the shock on himself while wiring the signs, and did so again while a reporter watched Wednesday, touching both signs repeatedly without flinching. Under each was a yellow sign warning that they were electrified.
Turschak, it turns out, isn’t a member of Orange County’s perennially-embattled Republican minority, which is outnumbered nearly three to one by Democrats.
He’s registered as an unaffiliated voter and said he doesn’t agree fully with either party.
“This isn’t about politics,” he said. “This is about my right to protect my property and my ability to display my beliefs.” “I could drive around Chapel Hill and fill up a dump truck with Obama signs if I wanted, but that wouldn’t be right,” he said. “I just expect the same degree of respect out of people who disagree with me.”
Before arriving at his shocking idea, Turschak pondered other approaches, including a sign that would say “Some tolerant, open-minded liberal stole my signs.”
The deputy said there wasn’t anything illegal about pet-fence setup, Turschak said, but suggested that it might make more trouble than it was worth.
Turschak said that he agreed and probably would pull the plug on the signs. The camera, though, will stay.
Video of the junior obamabot getting shocked.
http://videos.newsobserver.com/?a=player&id=2335356
