Preston Fosback and his mother, Kristine, were shocked when their Obama sign was stolen one night in April from the front yard of their Portland, Ore., home.

When they put up another one nine days ago, that, too, was swiped within hours. Undeterred, they made their own sign and put it up the next day.

Preston Fosback

But this time, 16-year-old Preston had a plan: He set up a video camera inside the house and trained it on the sign from behind a window. He figured he would catch the thief on film, should he return. He hooked up the camera to a Web site that provides live streaming. He wrote a few words on the site explaining its purpose.

And then, the handmade sign with red, uneven letters went global.

A few people started watching the video, which shows the sign next to another sign endorsing a local candidate, beside a flowerbed. The only reliable action consists of the occasional car passing in the background.

Still, by that first evening, more than 100 people were watching. The next day, when Preston checked the site during lunch at school, more than 450 were there, not only from around the U.S. but as far away as Australia, Sri Lanka and Japan.

"We had no intention of making this so public," says Preston, who goes by "signkid" on the online chat that runs next to the video. "It just kind of took over by itself."

Keeping an Eye on the Sign

Watch the Obama lawn sign on the Internet. Obama Sign CCTV 1


"It's not that boring really," says Elena Johansson, a 26-year-old law student in Turku, Finland. "There are squirrels moving around."

Ms. Johansson admits to staying up until 4 a.m. one night, participating in the around-the-clock vigil. She's drawn to the sense of purpose, as well as the community developing in the online chat, which focuses primarily on the U.S. presidential race, the participants' personal lives and, of course, the sign.

Given that little happens on screen, mundane occurrences can generate fevered excitement.

When a car passes, someone often types, "CAR!" Each night when Preston turns on the two lamps aimed at the sign, held on the roof by pillow cases filled with dirt, viewers type, "LIGHTS!" A few nights ago, Ms. Fosback, a public-school teacher, provided some entertainment by feeding pizza to their golden retriever, Mandy, in front of the camera.

The community -- which now calls itself CHAOS, or Citizens Hanging Around the Obama Sign -- has become protective not only of the sign but of the Fosbacks.

When Preston joined the online chat during a school day, several asked why he wasn't in school. He explained he was in computer class. Some have offered to start a college fund for him. Others, now aware of his mother's teaching schedule, have suggested Preston not respond to any strangers on the site until his mother gets home.

At first, the Fosbacks were cautious about telling anyone about the video, keeping their identity anonymous. Ms. Fosback, who goes by "teachkids" on the forum, disclosed their secret to a neighbor, so she could keep an eye on things when the Fosbacks are out. Preston recently began telling a few friends at school.

One of them, named Ben, called Preston one night and asked him to prove it was really him behind the video. Preston then wrote, "Hi Ben," on a piece of paper and walked in front of the camera with it, prompting a chorus of questions on the site asking who Ben was.

When Preston informed them that his friend was a McCain supporter, a wave of derision followed until Preston warned viewers he would ban anyone from the site who wrote anything negative about Ben. Some then started writing, "I love Ben," or "Ben is my best friend."

"That's when I realized how influential I was in this chat," says Preston.

Lorraine Armstrong, a 40-year-old human-resources manager for a construction company in Orlando, Fla., says she's had the video on her computer screen, both at home and work, since she discovered it a week ago. She has a clock on her computer set to the time in Portland.

Campaign signs in the Orlando area for both candidates have been vandalized, she says, keeping her from displaying any of her own. While she sees the video as mostly humorous, she says it involves more serious matters, too, such as freedom of speech.

"There's a sense of being able to help someone do this," says Ms. Armstrong. She adds she's helped name things in the video. Some rocks near the signs, for example, are now called "Ba-rocks."

For a while, things stayed quiet around the sign. Then, at 11:13 Portland time Tuesday night, something actually happened.

Through the darkness, viewers could see two teenage girls emerge and move toward a small gnome Preston had set up by the sign. Earlier in the day, some viewers had asked Preston to put something outside to provide some variety. He and his mother came up with the gnome, left in their garage from a ceramics class.

The "chat people," as Preston calls them, loved it, naming the gnome "O'Merkley," a mixture of Obama and the name of the local candidate, Jeff Merkley, whose name is on the other sign in the yard.

The two girls approached the signs. One of them grabbed O'Merkley, the ceramic gnome, and stuffed him in a garbage bag, breaking the brittle figure in the process. They then ran off. The online forum, meanwhile, had gone berserk, with comments ranging from "PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" to "Stop stop stop" to "Call 911."

But since no one knew the identity of the Fosbacks, who were sleeping at the time, or had their phone number, the viewers couldn't alert them. "It was a helpless feeling," says Candice Smith, a 44-year-old in San Francisco who sells antiquarian books on the Internet and has been monitoring the video.

The next morning, after finding the destroyed gnome by the sign, Ms. Fosback dressed in black and pretended to weep in front of the camera. That night, the forum stopped chatting for a moment of silence in the gnome's honor. One viewer made a T-shirt with the inscription, O'Merkley: Rest in Peace.

"The Internet," says Preston, "has a way of taking simple things and making them extraordinary."

Write to Christopher Rhoads at