A dozen Riverside residents reported campaign signs supporting John McCain were stolen from their front lawns Monday night.

Police Chief Tom Weitzel said the residents who called to complain said their signs were removed from their property. Village employees have not removed any signs and would only be allowed to if they were on village property — which these were not.

“We have had some other incidents,” Weitzel said about campaign time. “But not to this extent, this many single complaints.”

Since Monday, the Riverside Police Department has received 12 separate complaints from residents throughout the village.

Christina Connor, resident of Maplewood Road in Riverside, said a campaign sign was stolen from her property and it seemed like a lot were taken Monday night.

The assumption around the village is that people drove around to pick them up, going down side streets as opposed to the heavier traffic areas, according to Connor.

“Well, you know, it’s freedom of speech and you have people yanking the signs off your property,” Connor said. “My neighbor has been supplying people with signs and has to keep going around and replacing them.”

Connor said she had a sign back up in her front lawn Tuesday afternoon.

Tom Latzke, another resident of Maplewood Road whose signs were stolen, said he has never seen anything like this through any other elections.

“On our block we have maybe seven or eight homes with (McCain) signs and three with Obama signs,” Latzke said. “The only signs taken were McCain — it wasn’t just kids goofing around.”

Weitzel said the offenders have not been found but he has issued a special patrol alert to all the officers detailing the fact that these signs are being removed.

“The allegation is they are being stolen,” he said. “(I have) issued a written alert that if they see individuals removing signs, stop and investigate and find out what is going on and see why they would be removing them from someone’s private property.”

Charges would be misdemeanor theft, according to Weitzel.

“I feel somewhat violated. You are talking about expressing how you feel about something and somebody turns around and instead of them putting up their own sign, someone is stopping me from expressing my opinion,” Latzke said.