PORTLAND, Ore. -- A Northeast Portland teenager is firing up the Internet with his global effort to try to catch the thief who stole Obama campaign signs from his front lawn.

Preston Fosback, 16, was angry that two of his signs mysteriously left his lawn but he had no idea his mission would get international attention.

 “All I wanted to do was tape record the sign, try to catch a thief.  But I knew that would mean using a lot of tapes.  That's when I learned I could set up a webcam.” Fosback said. 

He did, using ustream.tv   It enabled his live field to be broadcast around the world. 

Live: Obama sign cam

His efforts have received attention from liberal blogs like the Huffington Post, and reputable newspapers like the Wall Street Journal.

“I don’t want this to be my 15 minutes.  I just want to catch a thief,” he said.

So far, though, all he’s been able to catch is 100,000 hits on the day after the story broke.  And he is amazed the feedback he’s receiving on his site.

“Much of it is smart political talk, but there are some ugly bloggers who I think are conservatives.”  Sometimes, he’s realized, attention isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.

His mom shies away from it. 

“We never wanted to get media coverage; we just wanted to show our support for Obama.  We even made our own sign because the campaign told us they ran out," she said. 

Friends have donated signs to their cause and they don’t know when they’ll take the webcam down.

In the meantime, it’s a lesson for this high school junior -- that politics is ugly.