Political Signs Vandalized, Stolen In Groton

Chaz Zezulka supports the upcoming referendum on school construction in Groton, so he put up three vote “yes!” signs on his lawn.

Within days, they were gone. He found them in a marsh near his house.

“I felt violated,” said Zezulka, a member of the Groton Board of Education.

He’s not the only one; voters against the proposed $133 million school construction program called “Phase II” have also had signs vandalized or stolen.

“It's happened twice on Mitchell Street where I live," said Neal Gardner, who opposes the school construction project, and saw vote “no” signs disappear.

Taxpayers go to the polls Monday to vote on the proposed school construction program at a townwide referendum. Groton Town Police said they received a complaint last week about signs being stolen all over town.

Nancy Nicolescu, spokeswoman for State Elections Enforcement Commission, said the office receives many calls about theft of sabotage of campaign signs during every election cycle. But she said the commission does not have jurisdiction over this problem and generally refers campaign committees to their local police departments.

Stealing signs is enough of an issue in Connecticut that the Office of Legislative Research presented a report on it in November, 2010. The report said researchers could not find a specific law criminalizing the vandalism or theft of political signs, but residents could be charged with trespassing or larceny. Campaign signs would fall under the category of sixth-degree larceny, which applies to theft of an item valued at $250 or less.

Six states - including Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine - have specific penalties related to the destruction of campaign signs, the report found.

Zezulka said he didn’t call the police, but he described how upset he was during the school board’s last meeting. He said he hoped people would get the message and think twice before walking onto someone’s property and stealing a political sign.

In some ways, he said such behavior could be considered par for the course.

“It is,” he said. “Isn’t that sad?”