“I wanted to have my say”; A Manchester woman reports the theft of political yard signs

MANCHESTER, Mo. (First Alert 4) – It’s that time of year when people put up their political signs – some supporting Republicans, Democrats or changes to the state constitution can be seen throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area.

“I have the right to support whoever I want to support,” Shelley Parsons said.

In a sleepy Manchester neighborhood, Parsons wanted to let her neighbors know that she supports Democrats and the legalization of abortion.

“With all the things going on this year, I wanted to speak my mind,” Parsons said.

In front of Parsons’ house you will see several “Harris Walz” signs. But on Sunday morning, she said, they were gone.

“I got robbed,” Parsons said.

She quickly filed a report with Manchester police and said she had replaced most of the signs. But Parsons said Sunday night she had been having trouble sleeping.

“I feel more and more like you can’t say what you want to say because ‘we’re going to stop you,'” Parsons said.

Manchester police say they have reported only one political sign stolen since the August primary election. We asked 11 other police departments – many have not yet responded.

Spokespeople for the Chesterfield Police Department, as well as the St. Louis County Police Department and St. Louis City Police Department, said their system only tracks thefts as a whole and therefore it is too difficult to say how many reported political yard signs have been stolen recently.

The City of Manchester posted a warning to residents on Facebook last month that they will investigate these thefts:

“It is important to respect each other’s views and First Amendment rights,” the post reads.

As for Parsons, she’s buying another security camera in the hopes that something like this doesn’t happen again – or that she can catch her in action.

“Stopped me from saying what I want to say. It made me very, very, very angry,” Parsons said.

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