Don't even ask. Just when you think you have seen the lowest, another despicable person will reset the bar. You read about it almost every day. How could someone possibly do that?
Here's what you do. Get another flag and the pole.
Take a mason jar and wrap it in an old towel. Bust up the glass fairly small. Now take some spray glue and spray the pole section below the where flag attaches. The part of the pole you grab.
You can guess the next part. Coat the glue with the glass dust and small slivers.
Hang the flag to where the only way to grab it is by the pole. Not the flag itself.
Then watch a MF'er grab it. Get some imagination, Mr Hill. Stop that $hit before it happens.
You can try that defence, it may work. But probably not. Law abiding people have to worry about breaking the law and/or getting sued. Criminals have never cared about the repercussions of their actions.
Buy a used piece of oil well drill pipe and turn it into a flag pole with a lock.
I liked the Liberals that messed themselves up stealing campaign signs and one was wrapped in barbed wire they couldn't see at night. You can do the same thing with the pole. You know it is there, they don't know it is there. And if a little razor wire around the handle elicits some screaming, you know to go in your yard, feel threatened, and punch them in the nose for good measure.