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Biden signs stolen from Park City yards


Some in Park City want to show their support for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden with signs.

Others apparently view a Biden sign with detest.

The Park City Police Department in late September received two reports of signs in support of Biden disappearing from someone’s property. The two cases show the intensity of the presidential campaign on a national level has seeped into the community as Biden and President Trump reach the final weeks of the contest.



In the first case reported to the police, at 12:13 p.m. on Sept. 23, someone on Monitor Drive contacted the agency saying a Biden sign was taken in the overnight hours. It was in a yard, the person told the police. The department classified the case as a citizen assist.

Two days later, meanwhile, someone on Telemark Drive filed a similar report. The police at 2:49 p.m. were told an unspecified number of signs in support of the former vice president were stolen from a yard. The case was logged as a suspected theft.



The two cases, reported in disparate locations inside Park City, were called in to the police in the days before the first debate between Biden and Trump, which was scheduled on Tuesday night, and when the politicking will likely escalate with just more than a month before Election Day. The signs also disappeared shortly before voters in Summit County are expected to receive their ballots in the vote-by-mail election.

Summit County, especially the Park City area, leans toward the political left and Democrats have a long history of electoral success. The Democratic leanings can be traced back decades and have been especially pronounced since the rapid growth of the 1990s brought many from blue states like California and New York to Park City.

The Democrats hold each of the five seats on the Summit County Council and other important elected County Courthouse posts. Democratic Statehouse and congressional candidates have long enjoyed some of their best results in the Park City and Summit County portions of any given district, even as Republicans have typically won seats on the strength of their showing elsewhere in the districts. In the 2016 presidential contest, the Democrat, Hillary Clinton, easily won Summit County with Trump a distant second.

Matthew Patterson, the executive director of the Utah Democratic Party, said in an interview there have been reports of disappearing Biden signs across Utah and throughout the nation. A typical Biden yard sign costs approximately $5 to create, he said.

“I just don’t understand why people can’t let signs be,” Patterson said.

He noted that a case of a stolen sign also involves trespassing since the signs are generally in someone’s yard.

“People just don’t respect people’s property, don’t respect their ideas,” Patterson said.

He said Biden supporters in the state have requested additional signs when the ones they had are stolen.

“They’re just making people that much more committed” to the candidate, Patterson said.

Information about the police investigation into the missing signs was not available early in the week.


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