Global Sign Watch

This story has it all. Human interest. Tension. Kidnapping and maiming of garden gnomes. Internets FTW! Don't steal this family's Obama sign. The world is watching. Literally.

Preston Fosback and his mother, Kristine, were shocked when their Obama sign was stolen one night in April from the front yard of their Portland, Ore., home.

When they put up another one nine days ago, that, too, was swiped within hours. Undeterred, they made their own sign and put it up the next day.

But this time, 16-year-old Preston had a plan: He set up a video camera inside the house and trained it on the sign from behind a window. He figured he would catch the thief on film, should he return. He hooked up the camera to a Web site that provides live streaming. He wrote a few words on the site explaining its purpose.

And then, the handmade sign with red, uneven letters went global.

A few people started watching the video, which shows the sign next to another sign endorsing a local candidate, beside a flowerbed. The only reliable action consists of the occasional car passing in the background.

Still, by that first evening, more than 100 people were watching. The next day, when Preston checked the site during lunch at school, more than 450 were there, not only from around the U.S. but as far away as Australia, Sri Lanka and Japan.

Read the rest of the article at the Wall Street Journal

Watch the sign