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Report: Truck With Obama's Teleprompter Stolen

<p>When he addresses crowds, the president often uses a teleprompter (screen at left) and a podium adorned with the presidential seal. Here: an Aug. 5, 2011, event at the Washington Navy Yard.</p>
Carolyn Kaster
/
AP

When he addresses crowds, the president often uses a teleprompter (screen at left) and a podium adorned with the presidential seal. Here: an Aug. 5, 2011, event at the Washington Navy Yard.

"A truck filled with President Obama's podiums and audio equipment," including a teleprompter from which he reads prepared remarks and the presidential seal he stands behind, was stolen from a hotel parking lot in Henrico, Va., on Monday, local WWBT-TV reports.

The vehicle was discovered a short time later outside another local hotel. The TV station says it isn't yet known whether everything inside was recovered.

An unnamed "Defense Information Systems Agency" spokesperson tells the station that "no classified or sensitive information was in the vehicle."

We'll leave it to others (that means you, commenters) to speculate about how going without his teleprompter might affect the president (or most any politician, for that matter). It's safe to say, though, that a backup teleprompter is probably always available.

The president is in the middle of a bus tour through North Carolina and Virginia.

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.