Stealing Signs

I have a feeling Jesse and Brooke will be posting their own thoughts on today, but I wanted to go ahead and get my story out there, because my story takes the cake.

We had a joint yard sale with the Rays (with some stuff from the Smiths... and our neighbors across the street... and our next-door neighbor) today. We considered it a fundraising yard sale because the Rays are putting their money toward traveling to pick up Sophie (their adopted daughter) in Ethiopia in a month, and Jess and I are putting our money toward paying for our mission trip to Belize this summer. So yesterday, the girls made signs and I went around and put them up in the neighborhood, which gets a lot of traffic for shortcuts and the Target across the street. I put up a sign on the major cut-through street (complete with speedbumps if that tells you anything) on a light pole. Well, this morning, Jess comes back from picking up donuts and says that our sign had been taken down, except one of the same color had been put up advertising a yard sale for the house in which the light pole was. So I decided to investigate.

I get in my car, drive over, and sure enough, there is our yard sale sign, flipped over, and marked on for a different sale. This is no good. So I get out and walk over to the lady who lives there and asked her why she thought it was a good idea to use our sign to advertise for her sale. And she tells me that she does not allow anyone to advertise on "her light pole." The only problem, this light pole belongs to the city of Memphis, and is actually in her neighbors yard. It's not exactly her pole.

Then she tells me that they (her and her husband) tell people not to put signs up. Funny thing, because I put my sign up yesterday in broad daylight, right in front of her husband. He didn't say a word.

So I ask her again why she thought it would be okay to use our sign. Indignantly, she tells me that she is old, tired, and crank and to leave her alone. This is no good.

I try a different route. "Ma'am," I ask her, "did you not have a problem with taking down a sign that clearly says the sale is for a good cause?" The lady says no, and then asks what good cause could it be. When I mention the whole "adopting a baby from Africa" thing, the weirdest thing happens. She becomes young, awake, and apologetic.

Long story less long, she apologizes, and lets me take the sign down, allowing me to use our sign somewhere else, and mentioning that she will send people our way after her sale. I offer her the same, and we part ways.

I don't get why someone would do that. I mean, tear the sign down and throw it away, whatever. We had other signs and had a great sale without it. But using our sign for your own sale? Come on now.

On a side note, Nora Conway is still one of the cutest baby girls ever, and we sold Jesse's old twin size water bed for $40. That sale alone made my day. Our attic used to look like this:





Now it doesn't.