We have had this sign for a few months, happily sitting in our front yard. Friday, I was driving home from my weekly Social Justice Run, Run4Breonna, when John called and asked if I noticed our sign was missing?
He went to our cameras and we quickly found the feed of the thief. Car drives by, U-turn to the front of our house, conversation with passenger, and he gets out, rips the sign out of the yard and puts in his backseat. WHAT? Let me go back a few weeks, this same car, stopped one afternoon and left a note in our library, on a cocktail napkin, that said All Lives Matter.
Clerly we have a racist in our hood and now he is stealing.
So we went to work.
1- Poste a video and 4 clears shots of the car and the man, stealing our sign, asking for help in identifying him.
2 - Ran the neighborhood the next day and aha! John fondd the car in a driveway.
3- With the help on the internet, one you have an address you have a name and off he went.
4- Next we paid $4.99 on ReverseWhitePages and found a phone number.
5- Meanwhile NextDoor has blown up, eventually topping at 181 comments and it was insane, No one identified the culprit but man there were many many tangents and it got ugly. Politics, racism, accusations, name calling and it went on and on.
6- Called the number, no answer, shocking.
7 -Sent a text and asked him to call Julie Dunkle.
8- 3 hours later a call comes in from a blocked number and it was HIM! He immediately apologized, no excuses, took ownership and says he put an apology in the mail wtih $20 to replace the sign.
9- I accepted his apology and did not engage further.
10- He asked how we found him? Ah video cameras + internet and it was not hard.
11- He then asked if I would take the post down.
So, that tells me, someone in the neighborhood saw the post, recognized him and reached out to him. While NextDoor can be out of control, it did the job! Sure we found him but I am guessing his response to me would have been a bit different without the public shaming.
Many on NextDoor wanted to put Social Justice and BLM signs in his yard, expose his name and address and more. But I updated my post with " We have found the individual who stole the sign and have come to a peaceful resolution" I left that up for a while but eventually deleted the entire post as it was out of control.
To say I was shocked, minimized that for sure. I am relieved and feel confident that this individual will think twice before he says All Lives Matter and I am confident he will not be stealing signs.
Of the 181 comments, that was about 60 people and 90% of them were cordial and rational so I am feeling good about my neighborhood. I dont mind people with differing opinions or politics, but I do mind hate speech, name calling and beligerat behaviour.
Thank you Encinitas4Equality!
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