Property still missing from Republican HQ

Published 7:11 pm Monday, October 15, 2012

About 10 campaign signs were returned to the Pike County Republican Headquarters before a police report was filed Monday. Several others have not been recovered.

On Sunday, members of the Pike County Republican Party noticed about 15 yard signs missing from in front of the headquarters on South Brundidge Street in Troy. A large banner affixed to the side of the brick building with “Pike County Republican Headquarters” written on it is also still missing.

A call from a student on campus Monday morning alerted party members that the missing signs might be on Fraternity Row.

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“We drove over there and saw the ones that had gone missing,” said Pike County Republican Party Chair Thomas Haigh. “We are just assuming a bad decision was made on Saturday night.”

Chris Hager, Troy University Interfraternity Council advisor, and Cole Lawson, president of the Troy University College Republicans recovered about 10 signs from a vacant lot near the fraternity houses and returned those to the Republican Headquarters.

The pair also went house to house on Fraternity Row checking for the large sign that was reported missing, but did not find it.

“There were a lot of students hanging out in the houses when we were there,” Hager said. “A lot of students were very shocked to hear the sign was missing.

Hager said he and other university representatives are looking into the situation and asking fraternity members and their friends to come forward if they know anything about how the signs came to be on university property.

“Sometimes fraternities are targets of a ‘fun prank’ that turns out not to be so fun,” Hager said, noting that there is no evidence fraternity members were the ones who took the signs.

Haigh said that candidates pay anywhere from $3 to $6 for basic yard signs, up to $25 for larger yard signs.

“If whoever did it had stopped and thought about it for half a second, you wouldn’t steal signs from Expert Tire across the road,” Haigh said. “These signs are no different.”

Haigh said the Pike County Republicans don’t intend to file a police report if all the signs are recovered.

“I know it is a lot of money that candidates pour into their campaigns, so even if the fraternities are not responsible, we want to make sure we are helping the community see the property returned.

“We don’t condone any type of theft,” Hager said. “That doesn’t reflect the values of each fraternity’s organization.”