What happened next was hardly what Acorn expected.
The tracking devices did not lead to a landfill, a roadside ditch, or some unknown property.
Instead, they reportedly directed Acorn and police to the Columbus, Georgia, home of a prominent local reverend and her husband, a retired Columbus State University educator.
Acorn is challenging longtime Democratic state Rep. Debbie Buckner as an Independent write-in candidate.
WATCH:
The candidate said his campaign had repeatedly lost signs near Matthews Elementary School and County Line Road. After becoming frustrated with the disappearances, he decided to put tracking devices inside new signs and wait to see where they went.
“I feel like I outsmarted the perpetrator,” Acorn told NowGeorgia.com, which first reported the incident.
His plan apparently worked.
Less than a day after the tagged signs were placed, Acorn received an alert indicating that two of them were on the move.
The location data eventually brought the candidate and law enforcement to the residence of Richard Spencer Garrard and his wife, Rev. Dr. Cindy Cox Garrard.
Richard Garrard is a retired Columbus State University educator. According to the university’s faculty catalog, he previously served as a lecturer in middle-grades education. Columbus State’s archives also contain an oral-history interview documenting his experiences as both a student and faculty member.
Police reportedly arrived at the Garrards’ residence, where Richard Garrard answered the door.
According to Acorn, an officer told him authorities knew the missing campaign signs were at the home and that they needed to be returned.
Otherwise, Acorn was told he could pursue charges.
The situation became even more striking when four of Acorn’s campaign signs were reportedly recovered from the garbage at the residence.
Four signs.
Campaign materials that had disappeared from public areas had allegedly ended up in the trash at the same residence identified by the AirTags.
The story later gained additional attention after Libs of TikTok shared footage of the incident on X, helping propel the unusual political dispute into the national social-media spotlight.
But the controversy did not end with the recovery of the signs.
Cindy Garrard later appeared to acknowledge that she had removed the signs while maintaining that her husband had nothing to do with their removal.
She also disputed the suggestion that she had taken any campaign signs from private property.
In a statement to NowGeorgia, Garrard said she believed the signs had been improperly placed along a public right-of-way. Based on that belief, she said she removed them.
She confirmed that the signs were subsequently returned.
That explanation, however, was not the only political connection to emerge.
Acorn reportedly produced election records showing that Rev. Dr. Cindy Cox Garrard had financially contributed to the campaign of Debbie Buckner, the Democratic incumbent Acorn is challenging.
That detail immediately added another layer to an already unusual campaign-sign dispute.
Acorn reportedly gave the couple several hours to apologize for the incident. He also said he would keep their identities private if they responded.
According to the report, no response came.
Acorn subsequently posted a photograph of Cindy Cox Garrard and her husband on Facebook, accompanied by the caption “sign snatchers.”
Garrard responded publicly beneath the post.
“They” is me, not my husband. I never removed a sign from private property.
The dispute now leaves several questions hanging over what initially appeared to be a simple case of missing campaign signs.
Did the signs violate local rules governing placement along public rights-of-way? Was their removal justified? And did the circumstances surrounding their removal cross the line into criminal conduct?
Those questions could become clearer if Acorn receives the police body-camera footage.
The candidate submitted an open-records request seeking a copy of the responding officer’s body-cam video.
For now, however, Acorn has not decided whether he wants to take the matter further.
When asked whether he intended to pursue criminal charges, he offered an answer rooted more in faith than politics.
“God shows us grace every single day and he commands us to do the same. It’s something I’m going to pray about.”
Under Georgia law, stealing campaign signs can carry criminal penalties, including up to 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
What began as a frustrating series of missing signs has therefore turned into a bizarre local political controversy involving AirTags, police, a retired university educator, a prominent reverend, competing political campaigns, and potentially criminal consequences.
For Acorn, the episode also demonstrated just how difficult it can be to make campaign signs disappear without leaving a trail.
In this case, the trail wasn’t difficult to follow.
An AirTag did the following.
