Kids, Dog Solve Sign Theft Caper

[THL]

Kids, Dog Solve Sign Theft Caper

Three children in DeKalb County used two-way radios, binoculars, and their dog to set up a sting operation in order to catch a campaign yard sign thief in their neighborhood. Rachel, Chase and Reese Freeman set an undercover trap for the person who had repeatedly taken their Don Broussard for County Commissioner campaign yard signs.

"At first we thought about getting a paint ball gun and paint balling him when he came by," Reese Freeman said.

The signs kept getting plucked from the Freeman's yard late at night. "We would walk the dogs and would find the signs thrown in bushes, thrown in dumpsters and job sites," said the children's father, Hank Freeman.

"I would imagine it's over 100 [signs]. We've been replacing them...since May," Broussard told 11Alive's Denis O'Hayer.

The children figured the sign thief would come back again...and he did. While they watched with binoculars out of an upstairs window, the man appeared about 11:15 p.m. one night.

"Alert, alert, attack!" the children yelled, frightening the sign thief enough for him to start running. "His eyes were huge and he was like terrified," said Reese.

"I'm yelling at my wife to 'Release the dogs!' and 'Let's get him! Get the dogs!'" said Hank Freeman.

Rachel Freeman found the whole ordeal to be entertaining. "He was scared to death running down the street. It's just hilarious."

The family got the sign thieves' car tag number and gave it to the police, who put together a report on the incident. They interviewed a man whose name matched the tag number. The man denied any involvement and officers found no discarded campaign yard signs in his car or trash cans. No suspect has been named.

Don Broussard is in a campaign commission race with Jeff Rader and infill houses in the Freeman's neighborhood are big issues. "I don't suspect that the Rader campaign had anything to do with this," Broussard said. Rader, too, said he would never approve of any sign stealing.

While campaign sign theft is a long but illegal tradition in Metro Atlanta politics, the Freeman children think they've put a stop to it in their neighborhood -- for now.
http://www.11alive.com/specials/loca...?storyid=81940

"Release the dogs" - That's hilarious!!

[Confed999]

LOL! "And I'd have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddlin' kids!"