2 St. Johns County Commissioner candidates recovered their stolen campaign signs using a tracker

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — Every year just before an election, it is pretty common to see candidate signs disappear.

But in St. Johns County, two candidates running for commissioner, found their stolen signs all thanks to GPS trackers.

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Those candidates are Ann-Marie Evans, a candidate for County Commissioner District 1 and Ann Taylor, a candidate for County Commissioner District 5.

Both women, are running their advertising together.

Their marketing manager Nicole Crosby was quick to act.

“We had it on our phones, we were following a little blue dot,” Crosby said.

READ: ‘It’s devastating to all of us:’ St. Johns County family mourns the loss of their 7-year-old girl

They said their signs were recovered on a dock on the Guana River in Ponte Vedra.

They found three of their 10-foot-tall signs and then several smaller yard signs all at that location.

“It was a lot of work to have them installed and then now we are going to have to go through and do it all again,” Taylor said. “I was just so grateful that we had the tracker and so excited that we were able to catch them in the moment.”

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“Moving forward we will be putting them in every sign,” Evans said.

The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office told Action News Jax a deputy is conducting a follow-up investigation.

St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections Vicky Oakes has some advice for candidates if they’re convinced their campaign signs are stolen.

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“Candidate signs are just like any other kind of personal property,” Oakes said. “They would need to contact the sheriff’s office and report that their property is stolen.”

There are penalties if you steal a candidate’s sign.

Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland said stealing political signage can be prosecuted as petit theft under state law.

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