NORTHAMPTON – For the second time in recent months a custom metal sign supporting presidential candidate Donald Trump has been stolen from CRD Metalworks, according to police.
The most recent theft from the 118 River Road metalworking company was discovered by police Sunday around 9 a.m. during a routine property check, and follows a series of prior incidents.
In March, a pro-Trump sign valued at $1,000 was damaged twice and then stolen, according to Northampton Police Capt. John Cartledge.
Police responded to the property on March 3 and March 10 for reports that the sign had been damaged and again on March 14 when the sign was reported stolen.
The sign discovered stolen Sunday is valued at $500. It was last seen on the property Saturday afternoon, according to police.
Police have access to surveillance footage from a hunting camera installed on the property, and an investigation is ongoing, Cartledge said.
This is not the first time that signs fashioned by CRD have made news.
Last summer the company proudly displayed two Confederate Flags on its property, which at that time was in Williamsburg. One was a cloth flag hoisted on a pole and the other was a metal sign.
Owner Chris Duval said that he put the flag up at his business after people called for Confederate flags to come down in the wake of the June shooting that killed nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Following controversy over the display, Duval said he took the flag down in July because he “made his point.”
Correction (April 11, 2016): An earlier version of this article and headline misstated the number of signs that have been stolen. Two Donald Trump signs have been stolen from CRD Metalworks, not four.
Chris Lindahl can be reached at clindahl@gazettenet.com