BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- In this presidential election, the rhetoric has become so heated that opposing views are less and less tolerant of each other.
One Trump supporter in Bellingham says he's learning that the hard way after thieves started stealing his political signs. But he's fighting back.
In the hippy haven of Bellingham, political views tend to pull one direction. Public opinion can lean so far to the left that sometimes the right overcompensates just to get back to center.
That's the case with Ray Gilbride.
A tried and true Trump supporter, Gilbride wants people to know how proud he is of his presidential candidate.
“Earlier in the year I started putting up signs,” said Gilbride. “Some like it, some don't, but it's freedom of speech, right?
A freedom that he says has been trampled on by vandals and thieves. In four months, Gilbride had seven signs stolen. His security system captured one of them and recorded another putting a Bernie Sanders sign in his yard.
He was stunned.
“If someone comes on my property and steals stuff, its theft and it's not right,” said Gilbride.
So Gilbride decided to shock them back.
“That’s an electric fence unit. It's a 1.5 joule.”
He rigged up a system connected to his Trump signs, zapping anyone who touches them - like one woman caught on camera who grabbed his sign in the middle of the night.
“Just enough to surprise them.”
As funny as some find the idea, do two wrongs make a right?
“It's my property. It's over three feet off the sidewalk it's right here. If their parents had done their job like they should have been, I wouldn't be taking care of it right now.”
Police say as long as no one gets injured, he has a right to protect what's his. Even if his neighbors don't like looking at it.
