'No on T' Signs Stolen, Supporters Say

A large number of "No on T" signs were yanked from front yards of Watsonville homes overnight. One larger sign affixed to wooden posts staked in front of a business also vanished, according to the committee opposing Measure T. 

"Somebody put on a a major hit on the 'No on T' by stealing lots of signs throughout town," said Ceila Organista, a Watsonville community activist working on the "No on T" campaign.

The controversial proposal would annex 95 acres of farmland into the city's commercial land reserves. 

Measure T, backed by Watsonville City Councilman Daniel Dodge, landed on a special election ballot through the initiative process. Proponents say annexing the land would pave the way for new retail in Watsonville, which would provide much-needed jobs in a community struggling with 20 percent unemployment and a boon to sales tax revenues for the cash-strapped city. 

Voting on the measure opened in early May with mail-in ballots. Polls close Tuesday.
Signs were stolen overnight from the front yards of houses on Brennan, Palm, Brewington, Washington, Stanford, Jefferson and other streets, according to Amy Newell, co-chair of the committee opposing the measure. 

"They got away with dozens and dozens of yard signs, plus the 8’ by 4’ at the coffee drive-through on Freedom Blvd," Newell said in an email to Patch. 
At least one of the theft was caught on video.

"We have a video of them stealing two of them — a neighbor and mine," said Watsonville resident and "No on T" backer Jim Bacon, who has a surveillance camera trained on the front of his house. 

The video showed a lone man wearing a hoodie snag Bacon's sign at 4:09 a.m. Thursday, according to Bacon.

"The was just coming down the street picking them up," Bacon said Thursday afternoon before he headed down to the police station. "He had them in his arm. He was just making a route." 

The opposition committee was still trying to file a police report about the theft Thursday afternoon. 

It's not the first time the political signs have vanished. Newell said last night's thefts marked the third time one house had been targeted. Others had lost signs earlier in the campaign season. 

"But it is the enormity of what happened last night that is out of the ordinary," Newell said in an email sent to supporters Thursday afternoon.