‘Karen did this’

COEUR d’ALENE — A woman was arrested this week after home security cameras reportedly showed her vandalizing political yard signs.

Pamela R. Wallace, 58, is charged with malicious injury to property, a misdemeanor.

The charge stems from two incidents that occurred over the weekend. Security footage showed a woman, later identified as Wallace, drive past a residence near downtown Coeur d’Alene around 11 p.m. on Halloween. Wallace then reportedly walked past the house while wearing a full-body costume.

Around 12:40 a.m. on Nov. 1, Wallace reportedly returned to the residence and attempted to remove political signs from the yard. However, the homeowner, who did not wish to be identified, had attached the signs to the porch railing with cables so they couldn’t be stolen.

The homeowner said Wallace defaced the signs with a marker. Security footage showed Wallace return around 1:45 a.m. and destroy the signs with a boxcutter.

The signs were from The Lincoln Project, a political action committed formed by former Republicans to prevent the re-election of Donald Trump. The homeowner said they were the first political signs she had ever put out.

“I’m not an overtly political person,” she said. “I’ve been registered as a Republican my whole life.”

This year, however, she said she felt compelled to express her beliefs.

Though the homeowner said she wasn’t surprised that someone had defaced her signs, she said she was taken aback by Wallace’s apparent determination.

“She was so resolved that she came back an hour later to complete the job,” the homeowner said. “The nerve of it made me mad.”

That was when she decided to create her own signs — wooden ones, hand-painted. She displayed them in her yard, chained to the porch, along with the remnants of the original signs.

“An angry Karen did this,” one of the signs read, along with an arrow pointing to a destroyed Lincoln Project sign.

The homeowner also reported the incident to police.

Security footage showed that Wallace drove past the residence around 2 a.m. on Nov. 2. She returned once more around 3:45 a.m.

Footage showed Wallace, again in a costume, spray painting the wooden signs and the side of the residence just before the homeowner opened the front door.

“When I hit the door, she started running,” the homeowner said.

She then contacted police again.

Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White said security footage made it possible to identify Wallace quickly.

“Our officers recognized the suspect from previous contacts with her,” he said.

White said Wallace was taken into custody around 5 that morning, just a few hours after Wallace allegedly spray painted the signs. She reportedly posted bail.

The homeowner said she was impressed by how quickly Coeur d’Alene police identified Wallace.

“They always took it seriously,” she said. “I’m very grateful for that.”

The incident comes about a month after at least three residents in the Garden District discovered Confederate flags and conservative messages in their yards.

All three residents had Biden/Harris signs in their yards.

Coeur d’Alene police initially investigated the incident as a possible case of malicious harassment, Idaho’s hate crime statute. However, because the act of planting the flags appeared to be politically motivated — as opposed to racially motivated — the statute did not apply.

Further, because the person who left the flags did not step off the sidewalk and into the yard, no trespassing occurred.

Though she was shaken by the incidents, the homeowner said she’s found an unexpected silver lining.

“I think this woman was motivated by anger and hate and she wanted to spread division,” she said. “What she did was bring my neighbors and I closer together.”

While painting her new signs and surveying the damage to her home, she said she connected with neighbors who said they’re hesitant to put political signs in their yards for fear of retaliation.

“A large part of our population believes in respect and civility,” she said. “This woman thought she would undermine all those things. But she actually did the opposite.”