AirTag sting: Seward citizen tracks stolen Sullivan campaign sign after city officials single him out over political display

Photo: Bob Candopoulos reads the First Amendment to the Seward City Council after the city told him to remove campaign signs from his property.

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Aug. 17, 2026 – It is election season in Alaska. Campaign signs are sprouting along roads and across front yards,  and some are being knocked down, defaced or stolen.

In Seward, one property owner’s disappearing signs led to an AirTag stakeout, a police response, and an alleged admission from a woman who said she targeted him because of his conservative activism.

But the dispute began at City Hall.

Bob Candopoulos owns a lodge and a vacant lot within Seward city limits. As he has in previous election years, he placed signs on his property supporting candidates he favors. This year, his display includes signs for U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, Congressman Nick Begich and state Senate candidate Heath Smith.

Earlier this month, Candopoulos received a letter from the Seward Community Development Department telling him that city rules allowed only one political sign on a property and directing him to remove the others.

Candopoulos said he emailed the department asking how the restriction did not violate the First Amendment. After receiving no response, he sent a second email and again heard nothing.

He then called Community Development Director Daniel Meuninck.

According to Candopoulos, Meuninck told him the matter would be discussed with the city manager and members of the Seward City Council. Candopoulos said Meuninck later informed him that the city would pull back and not enforce the restriction while the council considered the issue.

Meuninck subsequently confirmed the city’s position by email, Candopoulos said. Although the department continued to believe the provision was enforceable, it would not be enforced against him. Meuninck also took responsibility for Candopoulos being the only property owner to receive such a letter, according to Candopoulos.

The city’s own political-sign guidance states that only one political sign is permitted per lot, along with limits on when such signs may be displayed. This is a clear violation of the First Amendment, which protects political speech.

Candopoulos took the matter to the City Council. During public comments at its Aug. 10 meeting, he read from the First Amendment and cited court decisions protecting political signs on private property. His remarks begin at approximately the 11:24 mark of the council meeting; he is the first member of the public to speak:

Political signs occupy especially protected territory under the First Amendment. In City of Ladue v. Gilleo, the US Supreme Court struck down a municipal ordinance that broadly prohibited homeowners from displaying signs on their own property. Other court decisions have held that governments generally may impose reasonable, content-neutral rules concerning matters such as sign size and placement but face much greater constitutional scrutiny when regulations distinguish signs according to their message.

While Candopoulos was challenging Seward’s sign restriction, some of his Sullivan signs began disappearing from his Third Avenue lot.

He said small Sullivan yard signs placed alongside the larger campaign displays vanished. In their place, someone planted signs supporting Democratic US Senate candidate Mary Peltola, a Democrat.

Candopoulos removed the Peltola signs and replaced the Sullivan signs. A few days later, he said, it happened again. He removed a Peltola sign, briefly drove to a nearby business and returned to discover that another Sullivan sign had already disappeared and been replaced with a Peltola sign.

That was when he decided to set a trap.

Candopoulos concealed Apple AirTags inside wooden campaign-sign posts, sandwiching the tracking devices inside the wood. He then put the Sullivan signs back out and waited.

Several days later, one of the AirTags began reporting from a location roughly three blocks away.

Candopoulos was nursing a broken foot and sternum suffered in a boating accident, so he called a friend to help follow the tracker to a Second Avenue residence. There, he said, they found one of the tagged wooden posts lying in the yard near a Peltola campaign sign.

Seward police responded. A man who answered the door said he was a renter and that the property belonged to Leslie Pemberton, according to Candopoulos’ account. Candopoulos said he knew Pemberton, had known her for 40 years, and called her while officers were present.

Candopoulos alleges that Pemberton subsequently admitted by telephone that she had removed the signs and asked how she could make amends. He told her the first step was to tell police what had happened so suspicion would not fall on the renter who answered the door.

Candopoulos said Pemberton later offered conflicting explanations in text messages, at one point claiming she did not know the signs were on his property. He does not believe that explanation, particularly because Peltola signs repeatedly appeared where his Sullivan signs had been removed.

When he asked why he had been targeted, Candopoulos said Pemberton told him members of Seward’s LGBTQ community feared him because he had organized people she characterized as “right-wing radicals.” Candopoulos and others in Seward have organized a conservative coalition that regularly meets to discuss issues.

The episode leaves Seward with two campaign-sign controversies as Primary Election Day approaches: A city government that singled out one conservative property owner before retreating from enforcement, and a possible political operative neighbor who apparently did not count on the campaign signs calling home.