Political billboard on Highway 101 has mystery owner

A politically charged digital billboard overlooking Highway 101 in San Jose was vandalized over the weekend, reportedly with dozens of eggs, just days after it flashed a message supporting President Donald Trump.

The two-sided billboard, which is visible from both directions of 101 just north of the Interstate 880 interchange, appeared to be riddled with holes Monday but still delivered a message against the Association of Bay Area Governments. The messages Monday included “ABAG is a soviet council” and “San Jose loves ABAG” and included a website for the group FreedomAdvocates.org.

The billboard is sitting on a fenced-off property on East Gish Road. Santa Clara County property records indicate owners of two parcels in the 300 block of East Gish Road located closest to Highway 101 are Atour and Grace Amirkhas and EFM Investments LLC.

This news organization reached out to both property owners. About 20 minutes later, someone who identified himself as Jeff called this newspaper and said the billboard “is on our property.”

“This is such anti-Trump territory,” said Jeff, who declined to give his last name for fear of “repercussions from the anti-Trump supporters.”

“We wanted to support Trump. Go Trump,” he said.

Jeff said the digital billboard went up a few weeks ago, and last week it flashed a pro-Trump message. One law enforcement officer recalled seeing a message supporting the re-election of Trump in 2020.

“We may have some additional pro-Trump messages in the future,” Jeff said. “We’ll see how things go.”

According to the most recent data from Caltrans, about 150,000 motorists travel through that stretch of Highway 101 on a daily basis.

Caltrans regulates the placement of outdoor advertising displays visible from California highways. A database of billboard permit holders available online was last updated on Jan. 9, and it was not immediately clear if the owner of the billboard visible from 101 obtained a permit.