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Political sign removal leads Hernando man to be arrested, charged

 
Published Nov. 1, 2014

SPRING HILL — John Stephen Good was proud of his campaign against campaign signs.

Good, 50, of Spring Hill posted photos of the political signs he'd plucked from the ground in Hernando County on his Facebook page, authorities say. He wrote on Facebook that he was "cleaning up" the county by "removing political signs from vacant lots."

On Friday, Good's civic crusade resulted in a criminal charge.

Hernando sheriff's deputies arrested Good at his home on Essex Lane in Spring Hill and charged him with seven counts of petty theft. He was taken to the Hernando County Detention Center and later released on $1,750 bail.

Deputies said they started investigating in mid October after several political candidates called to complain about missing signs. They zeroed in on Good as a suspect after seeing the Facebook posts. A detective who visited his home discovered more than 200 signs stacked in the driveway. Good's wife said her husband had been taking the campaign signs from vacant lots because he considered them an "eyesore" as they were placed on vacant lots.

In all, the detective recovered 244 signs, worth $1,220, from Good's house. They belonged to candidates of all political persuasions vying for elected office of all levels — from the Hernando County School Board to the governor's mansion. Good told investigators he removed the signs from the lots because he believed the candidates did not have permission to place them there. They were, he said, "illegally dumping."

The various property owners, however, told detectives that they had given permission for candidates to post their signs.

Good is the second Hernando man to be charged with theft of campaign signs in as many weeks. Benjamin Moser of Brooksville was arrested and charged with petty theft on Oct. 25 — the first day of early voting — after he removed 37 political signs belonging to nine candidates from the Spring Hill Library, according to the Sheriff's Office. Moser told deputies that he thought what he was doing was legal. He later posted on a Facebook page that he walked home from the jail and noticed more campaign signs along the way, but decided to leave them.