{"id":509206,"date":"2026-10-27T06:08:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T06:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/509206\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T06:08:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T06:08:19","slug":"political-sign-theft-vandalism-pops-up-in-south-bay-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/509206\/","title":{"rendered":"Political sign theft, vandalism pops up in South Bay cities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zip ties. AirTags. Motion activated cameras.<\/p>\n

With these supplies, former Cupertino Mayor Richard Lowenthal is ready to catch a thief. But it\u2019s not money, jewelry or electronics he\u2019s protecting \u2013 it\u2019s his yard signs.<\/p>\n

The 74-year-old is supporting a trio of candidates running together for three open seats on the Cupertino City Council: Councilmember J.R Fruen and newcomers Seema Lindskog and John Tang. Plastic signs bearing their names are staked to the ground in front of his house. Lowenthal said he also helps the campaign put up signs on park strips across the city, with the property owner\u2019s consent.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, however, dozens of signs have mysteriously disappeared or been intentionally knocked to the ground.<\/p>\n

Suspecting sabotage from other Cupertino council candidates, Lowenthal now zip ties them down to tree or bush branches. He\u2019s had to help a friend install a motion activated wildlife camera in front of their house to deter people from snatching up their signs.<\/p>\n

Lowenthal has even placed AirTags on some signs to see where they would end up. The signs moved from Bollinger Road where Lowenthal initaly had placed them, to a Santa Clara home he didn\u2019t recognize. He had to call the cops to get them back.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy only interest in doing that was to get them to stop,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t mind putting up signs, but I hate to do that multiple times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Incidents of political sign-related theft and vandalism are popping up all over the South Bay as cities close in on selecting their next leaders in the November election. In Cupertino for instance, city staff have received 23 formal complaints regarding yard sign thefts, compared with just six during the last election in 2024, as first reported by San Jose Spotlight.<\/a><\/p>\n

Garrick Percival, a political science professor at San Jose State University, said a person\u2019s intention for targeting political signs varies. The thefts could be political motivated, or be done as a way to seek attention. Either way, Percival said such act violates someone\u2019s space and property.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt undermines our efforts to have civil political dialogue to express support for candidates, to feel that someone is going to rip them down as a sign of some kind of protest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

These days political candidates often turn to social media to spread their campaign, but Percival said physical signs are still integral in local politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cLawn signs are an\u00a0 individual person\u2019s, or household, expression of political support for a candidate or for a campaign,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is an advantage in getting name recognition, which plays a bit role in local elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A zip tie secures an allegedly tampered sign of Cupertino City Council candidates, which former Cupertino Mayor Richard Lowenthal says would have been stolen if it were not attached to a hedge, in Cupertino, Calif., on Oct. 21, 2026. (Dai Sugano\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A zip tie secures an allegedly tampered sign of a Cupertino City Council candidate, which former Cupertino Mayor Richard Lowenthal says would have been stolen if it were not attached to a hedge, in Cupertino, Calif., on Oct. 21, 2026. (Dai Sugano\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Former Cupertino Mayor Richard Lowenthal says signs for Cupertino City Council candidates were stolen from his friend\u2019s property everyday for two weeks until Lowenthal installed this motion-activated wildlife camera pointed towards the signs, pictured on Oct. 21, 2026, in Cupertino, Calif. (Dai Sugano\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Former Cupertino Mayor Richard Lowenthal says he notices more city council candidates\u2019 signs getting tampered with in this election cycle in Cupertino, Calif. Photographed on Oct. 20, 2026. (Dai Sugano\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 4<\/p>\n

A zip tie secures an allegedly tampered sign of Cupertino City Council candidates, which former Cupertino Mayor Richard Lowenthal says would have been stolen if it were not attached to a hedge, in Cupertino, Calif., on Oct. 21, 2026. (Dai Sugano\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

Each South Bay city has their own rules on\u00a0where residents put up political signs, and what entities handle theft or vandalism-related incidents. Cupertino stipulates\u00a0that if the sign was installed with the consent of the property owners, removing the sign without their permission is consider petty theft, which is a misdemeanor. If convicted the charge can carry up to six months of jail time and a fine of up to $1,000.<\/p>\n

If residents think a sign has been stolen or damaged, the city directs them to call the Santa Clara County Sheriff\u2019s Office non-emergency number, rather than confront the person, which is what Lowenthal did.<\/p>\n

The Sheriff\u2019s Office doesn\u2019t have a \u201cspecific way\u201d of tracking the number of political sign-related theft, according to spokesperson Brooks Jarosz.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t just in Cupertino where candidate\u2019s signs are getting defaced.<\/p>\n

Los Gatos Mayor Rob Moore, who is running for reelection, said a dozen of his campaign signs have been stolen. One large sign, which hung in front of a downtown business, was recently torn, crumbled and smeared with \u2014 what Moore hoped was a dog\u2019s \u2014 poop. He ended up cleaning it off and ordering a new sign. Moore said he opted not to report the incident to the town or police department, as it\u2019s common part of the campaigning experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think half of the reason someone chooses to vandalize a piece of campaign material is to take time and energy away from the campaign,\u201d he said \u201cSo my (approach) was, \u2018OK if it happens I\u2019m going to put another one up.\u2019 You can\u2019t spend too much time dwelling on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

All political signs in Cupertino have to be taken down five days after Election Day while Los Gatos requires 10 days. But Percival said it won\u2019t be long before the signs make their return.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a degree of authenticity in putting a sign in your yard,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an act, you have to get the sign, you have to get it up. I think there is always going to be room for those things in politics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zip ties. AirTags. Motion activated cameras. With these supplies, former Cupertino Mayor Richard Lowenthal is ready to catch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[38499,196430,88,90,89,198],"class_list":["post-509206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-elections-2026","tag-political-signs","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}