By Patrick Tepoorten

Over the weekend the Chisago County Sheriffís Office received three complaints of stolen campaign signs in Harris. According to Sheriff Todd Rivard, all of the complaints were regarding signs promoting Rodney Larson, John Pelant, and Larry Nelson for city office. The three candidates signs are commonly found together.

In a Tuesday morning interview, Larson indicated that as many as 150 signs have disappeared from locations around Harris, mostly from back streets. At an estimated cost of $5 apiece, the loss totals $750. According to Rivard, that makes the thefts a felony.

Stealing political campaign signs is a crime, but the level of the crime is dictated by the value of the property stolen. Up to a $250 value is considered a misdemeanor, between $250 and $500 a gross misdemeanor, and values above $500 are a felony.

Larson is planning to replace many of the missing small signs with larger ones this week.

The sheriffís office has not received any complaints that other Harris candidates signs have gone missing.