I am inclined to agree with teejay here.
While all of us would like to believe it was without a doubt the JW who stole the sign.. do you really have proof?
While they possess legitimate reason to steal the sign, it does not make us any better than them to pass judgment and automatically be certain it was the local JW who committed the theft.
After thinking about this with my head and not my heart, it could just as easily have been mischievous teens pulling a prank. I know, I was a teen not too long ago
Now, interestingly, if you DO get ANOTHER sign with the phrases you suggested above, and it is stolen AGAIN... then I believe we would have sufficient reason to believe this was intentional and not a random act of teenage practical jokers.
As always, I highly admire your work Bill Bowen. We need more men like you. Keep up the good work.
It is not religious persecution for an informed person to expose publicly a certain religion as being false, thus allowing persons to see the difference between false religion and true religion.
WT 11/15/1963 page 688 paragraph 3