Gazette photo by Andrew Wallmeyer Pete Schiltgen's property near the intersection of Highway 5 and Lake Elmo Avenue sports a sign for Rep. Julie Bunn (DFL-Lake Elmo), while Gorman's Family Restaurant has signs for her challenger, Kathy Lohmer, and several other Republican candidates. Local law enforcement officials say political sign theft has again been an issue this year, but less so than in previous years.

Every fall, political signs spring up in yards throughout Washington County, temporarily giving physical form to the area's political landscape.

And each year, just as reliably, a handful of the signs are stolen.

Over the weekend, Stillwater Police received four reports of political sign theft scattered from North Hill to Oak Glen and Croixwood. Other local law enforcement agencies said they have also fielded similar calls in recent weeks.

Though none of the departments tracks the calls specifically, police officials generally agreed that the number of sign thefts seems to be lower this year than in other years. Surprisingly so, some said, considering the high degree of interest in the presidential race.

"Amazingly enough, it seems to be down," said Sgt. Brent Olson of the Washington County Sheriff's Office. "I haven't noticed a whole lot of reports. I have no idea exactly how many have been filed, but this year is nothing out of the ordinary."

Last year, an unusually high number of sign thefts were reported in conjunction with the hotly contested school board race and school levy campaign.

Sheriff Bill Hutton said there seems to be an ebb and flow to the thefts from year to year, but it is a persistent issue.

"It's nothing new," he said. "Me being an elected official and having to do the sign thing every four years, I too was a victim of that."

Hutton said some sign thefts are politically motivated, but at least as many are carried out by pranksters or people who for some reason have an affinity for a certain candidate's name.

"Could I give you a number? No. ... But we have our share," he said. "Whether it's high school pranks or politically motivated, I couldn't tell ya."

The thefts are considered property crimes, which are measured by the value of the property damaged or stolen. Most cases of sign theft amount to a petty misdemeanor.

While large, multi-colored yard signs can cost up to $30 apiece, Hutton said the smaller signs more commonly displayed typically cost about $4 to $6 each, meaning "you'd have to steal a hell of a lot of signs to make it a gross misdemeanor or a felony."

Even though sign thieves are rarely caught, Hutton encouraged victims to report the crime to their local law enforcement agency, anyway.

"Then if they recover the signs they can at least get them back to you," he said.

Stillwater resident Jennifer Schally was one of the four people who reported sign thefts this weekend. She said signs supporting Democratic candidates Al Franken and Elwyn Tinklenberg disappeared from her yard on Creekside Circle Saturday night.

"It's kind of frightening that you can't even be a peaceful, upstanding citizen of Stillwater and put a little sign in your yard and not have it stolen," she said Monday. "I had only had them up for about a week and a half. It's just really upsetting to me, because I know that they do this every four years."

Republican supporter Ed Gorman said he has become used to having signs in front of his Lake Elmo restaurant taken or defaced, but it hasn't been much of a problem for him so far this fall.

"If any of them go missing, I replace them immediately," he said. "This year, I've only had one taken, but I also had three other ones out there that weren't taken, so I don't think it was a thief - at least not in the traditional sense," he said. "I think that was probably by somebody who needed one and figured I had one to spare."