MONROE — Christi Moritz has been married 49 years, and she and her husband have never put a political sign in their yard.

Until this year.

“This was the one time we stuck our necks out and put a sign up,” Moritz said. “This is the one time that we felt kind of strongly that we would like to put something out there.”

Overnight during the weekend of Sept. 19, the sign was stolen out of their yard on 19th Street.

Moritz and her husband are far from alone.

Monroe police took 20 separate reports of stolen political signs across the city over the same weekend.

All but two of the reported thefts were for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, Capt. Jerry Dahlen said. One was a sign for the re-election of President Donald Trump. Another was for Democratic Congressman Mark Pocan.

Dahlen said police also took a report of several signs lying at the intersection of 22nd Avenue and 1st Street.

The signs appeared to have been taken methodically. Dahlen speculated that the thief or thieves “must’ve been doing loops” in a grid pattern to cover as many blocks as they did.

None of the targeted residents had video evidence or witnessed the signs being taken.

Theft of political signs could result in a misdemeanor charge if a complainant wanted to pursue charges, Dahlen said, but because the actual value of a yard sign is so low, police would typically only issue a municipal citation for theft or trespassing.

But the value of political signs to their owners often goes beyond the face value of the cardboard.

Several people who called police to report sign thefts said they’d donated $25 to $35 in order to receive the sign, Dahlen said.

Mike Buol, a resident of the 2800 block of 1st Street, said the theft of his Biden sign over the weekend “just motivates me to send in another campaign donation to help ensure that Donald J. Trump is unemployed next January.”

“On my street actually all of the Biden signs were taken,” Buol said. He knows it happened sometime after 10 p.m. Saturday because his sign was still there at about 10 p.m. when he went to check on his truck that night.

He lives on a dead-end street, so “someone had to come down here on purpose.”

“It’s kind of brazen. ... It’s not the end of the world or anything, it just aggravates you.”

For Moritz, the thefts are a sign of how politically polarized the country has become.

“I’ll be 72 on Thursday and I’ve never experienced the division this has caused in families and in the country,” she said.

Her husband happened to have a replacement Biden sign ready to put up in the yard after the first one was stolen.

This time, though, it’s “hanging high up on a tree trunk.”