DANIELS, WV (WOAY) – Candidate Stephanie French claims roughly 50 of her campaign signs were stolen, with many others vandalized.
Stephanie French is running for Raleigh County Magistrate Division Two. Like many other politicians, she has signs all around Raleigh County advertising her campaign. However, for a few months now, someone has been stealing and vandalizing her signs.
“I’ve had several signs just literally come up missing. We’ve had close to 50 of the small yard signs that have come up missing. And a lot of the larger signs that are in the 2×4 frames, they’re the ones that are being defaced,” French said.
French claims her campaign has spent $5000 on the signs and having dozens of them come up missing has been a huge hindrance for her.
“All the candidates have to spend a lot of money in order to do this. Between your signs and the lumber that it takes to build them, and of course your time and effort to go put them out.”
According to French, the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department is working with her to find who’s responsible, and they’ve contacted local businesses with security cameras facing the signs to catch them in the act.
“Fortunately last night one of them that they got in Beaver, it actually has a traffic camera faced towards it. It also has a bank and a few other businesses faced towards it. And the sheriff’s department today is going to try and secure that footage and see if they can find an individual that is responsible.”
French also says that she does plan to prosecute whenever the sheriff’s department finds who is responsible.
