It’s a predictable sign of the times.
Less than two months before an election, a number of campaign signs are being stolen.
The hardest hit is Gary Singh with 12 pilfered signs as of Monday. Ben Cantu has lost five. And the third mayoral candidate, Lei Ann Larson, has also reported several stolen signs.
The hardest hit corner is the northeast corner of Moffat Boulevard and Spreckels Avenue where signs belonging to Dave Breitenbucher, Cantu, Singh, Tom Patti and a local non-profit advertising an event turned up missing over the weekend.
Larson’s sign was untouched likely because she is framing her freestanding signs with wood.
“I went for quality and not quantity,” Larson said of her signs.
Councilman Jose Nuno, who opted not to seek re-election, indicated it may not be by chance that most of the missing signs are close to where the homeless have encampments.
Nuno said the homeless have been known to remove the signs and use them as makeshift roofs for shelters.
That is exactly what happened to the first Singh sign that was stolen this year. It ended up along the Tidewater Bikeway behind the VFW Hall being used for a roof over a makeshift homeless shelter against a fence and under trees.
Nuno in 2018 had several signs damaged including one that was burned down on Daniels Street near Fishback Road.
In the same election swastikas were drawn on Chris Silva’s sign at Yosemite Avenue and Spreckels Avenue. That was in addition to other signs along Yosemite Avenue in the same general vicinity .
“At first I took it personally,” Nuno said of the sign thefts during his first run for elected office.
He noted the signs are costly and take effort by volunteers to place.
Eventually he realized it was not the candidates themselves removing the signs but other people.
In some cases when he got permission from a property owner, he found his signs and that of others still disappeared. Once he check into it, he found they were removed by property management companies employed by the property owners,
“The property management companies weren’t aware that anyone had been given permission by the property owner and were just doing their job,” Nuno said.
And in some cases, the property owner allows a sign to be placed on property that is being rented by a tenant.
That already led to a misunderstanding this election cycle.
Gary Singh had gotten permission from the property owner of the vineyard on the southwest corner of Main Street and Woodward Avenue while Larson secured it from a tenant.
To avoid hard feelings, Singh took his sign down and Larson asked permission of a property owner across the way to relocate her signs.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com