A school board candidate in Orange County, California, says an Apple AirTag he hid on one of his campaign signs tracked the missing sign to the home of his Democrat-backed opponent.
Marco Carralero, who is running for a seat on the Capistrano Unified School District board, says someone took one of his yard signs off a street corner last Tuesday. That evening, the tracker showed the sign located at an address the voter file lists as the home of his opponent, Melissa Caldwell, according to Carralero.
Carralero says he filed a police report and tagged Caldwell in a Facebook post on Saturday asking her to explain the situation.
“What’s going on here? Can you clarify why my campaign sign wound up at your home?” Carralero wrote.
Carralero told the SoCal Daily Pulse he began hiding AirTags on his signs and banners after repeatedly finding them kicked over, defaced, or missing entirely. He did qualify that he is unsure whether Caldwell took the sign herself or if it was someone else close to her.
If proven in court, the alleged theft would carry a fine of up to $1,000 and up to six months in county jail, per the SoCal Daily Pulse. Carralero said he included screenshots, timestamps, and other records to back his claim in the police report — but there has been no announcement of an official investigation into Caldwell as of Sunday.
The Daily Wire also reached out to Caldwell’s campaign, but has not received a response.
School board candidates in California run as nonpartisan, but prominent Democrat political action committees — such as Women for American Values and Ethics — have come out in support of Caldwell. The Women for American Values and Ethics PAC is supporting multiple California Democrats ahead of the November election, including Reps. Mike Levin (D-CA) and Dave Min (D-CA) — and lists Caldwell as a “recommended” candidate on its website. Caldwell is also receiving financial support from the district’s local teachers union.
This is not the first time that Orange County has had a sign-stealing incident. In 2024, Orange Unified School District Trustee Madison Miner hid digital trackers on “No on the Recall” signs during a Democrat-led campaign to remove her from the board, the Anaheim Observer reported.
The trackers led her to homes where she and Orange police recovered dozens of stolen signs, including several for a Republican state Senate candidate and a GOP supervisor candidate. Miner made citizen’s arrests of three people in front of officers.
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