For five months, Jack Bratrud has fought the McDonald's on London Road with signs visible to drive-up customers. They express his dismay for a company he says could have been a better neighbor.
On Monday, Bratrud discovered that a four-paneled sign had been taken down and another sign had been damaged. The stolen one read: Old McDonald's greed / killed the trees / stole the neighbor's privacy / e-i-e-i-yo.
It's part of Bratrud's personal battle with McDonald's over the loss of a line of trees that once blocked his home from the busy restaurant. A redesign of the property last year, which included a new building, meant taking down nine red pines between the properties.
So the sign theft had him storming into the restaurant soon after the vandalism was discovered.
"I told them they were the first suspect," Bratrud said Thursday.
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Managers at McDonald's referred questions about Bratrud to the corporate office. They weren't allowed to say much without corporate approval but were quick to repeat what they told Bratrud on Monday: "It wasn't us."
Brian Gist, a market supervisor for the McDonald's Midwest region, said "nobody from McDonald's removed any signs."
Bratrud said his ire isn't necessarily aimed at McDonald's this time. He said someone had to enter his gated yard and carefully take out the bolts that held up his sign. "You can't reach over the fence," he said.
He said he's disturbed that someone would be bold enough to enter the yard and take the boards down. The other three-piece sign, which reads "Grease-obesity-Oh, my" was knocked down and is back up this week.
Bratrud's signs are professionally done. He put up a hand-written version of the "Old McDonald's greed" sign this week but plans to put up a new sign that will read: "If you buy multinational by choice, you lose your political voice."
He said he hasn't had any communication with McDonald's representatives since his signs went up early this past summer. He called the signs "perfectly legal," meaning he isn't breaking any city sign ordinance, and it's a simple matter of "free speech."
"They've ignored me," Bratrud said of McDonald's.
Gist said his company did everything it could to accommodate neighbors through the renovation process. "We spoke with (Bratrud) from day one," he said.
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Police told Bratrud there wasn't much they could do. They filed a report, Bratrud said, and will act if another incident comes up.
Bratrud said he is still upset that the city didn't inform neighbors about the new design of the McDonald's site. He is irritated not only by the loss of the buffer but the drive-through moving closer and bright lighting all night long. "This is not suburbia," he said. "It's urban. We all have to live tightly together."
The signs are one outlet for his frustration. As Bratrud wrote in a letter to the News Tribune this week: "Anyone trying to deal with a multinational corporation knows that nothing can be done but maybe tickle their sensibilities. That is what the signs were seeking to do."
