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WILTON, Conn. – Yard signs supporting local, state and national candidates are being stolen and vandalized as Election Day gets closer, Wilton Police said.
Capt. John Lynch said police responded to several reports last week where signs were removed or damaged. Police said someone noticed a female, possibly in her late teens, remove a sign endorsing Mitt Romney for president from the front of a residence on New Canaan Road. The incident was reported to police at about 12:30 p.m. last Wednesday. Police said the woman was seen driving an Audi vehicle.
A sign endorsing President Barack Obama was reported stolen from a Ridgefield Road residence sometime last Saturday, Lynch said. Wilton Police also said three to four other signs were taken in the last two weeks from homes in the area of Chestnut Hill Road, Hurlbutt Street and Cedar Road. Police said someone drove over a political sign sometime overnight Saturday near a home on New Canaan Road.
Lynch said yard sign theft and vandalism are not uncommon in major election years. Theft of a sign from a public area is a sixth-degree felony, he said. A person who takes a sign from someone’s lawn can also be charged with trespassing. Defacing a sign can lead to a charge of third-degree criminal mischief, he said.
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