I-Team: Stolen Campaign Signs

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) -  In the midst of  a hotly contested senate race, several Scott Brown campaign signs are disappearing.  

The 22News I-Team reveals why this is more than just political mischief.  

Senator Scott Brown campaign signs are being stolen right from front yards in Springfield's Sixteen Acres.  Ruth Moorhouse is on her 3rd sign. Her neighbors have had to move their new sign closer to their home.

"It started a couple weeks ago, I didn't notice it - my husband did - my Scott Brown sign was gone.  
I got another one, put it up and its gone again a couple days later", says Moorhouse.

Stealing campaign signs is illegal, but not unusual.  

I've known it going on for as long as I can remember", says American International David Kuzmeski, who is a lawyer and the Criminal Justice Department Chairman.

If caught,  the thief would be charged with a larceny, a misdemeanor.  But it's likely not just one person.  Anne Marie Doyle lives in the East Forest Park section of Springfield.  

"They're taking the same thing over and over and over.  We have a right to put signs out in front of my house, if people don't like that that's okay with me, but to come on my property and steal it, it's not right", says Doyle.

The 22News I-Team called the Elizabeth Warren campaign and they told 22News there have been reports of Warren signs being stolen in Springfield's Ward 7.  While in the eastern part of the state, someone put Brown stickers on a Warren sign.  The thefts are violating the homeowners constitutional rights and if they are repeated, Kuzmeski says the larceny COULD become harassment in Massachusetts.
 
"The democratic process is for everybody, the sharing of ideas then we get to decide, some people radical people they just believe they've corned the market on ideas and act unilaterally", says Kuzmeski.

The election is Tuesday November 6th.