Avon Man Who Stole 500 Yard Signs Receives Jail Time, Forced to Apologize

By Colton Faull on Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 5:07 pm

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Photo courtesy of Avon Lake Police

Stolen yard signs from Avon Lake yards found stacked and neatly arranged.

Back in June, Avon Police arrested 62-year-old John Hoelzl for stealing more than 500 yard signs in the Avon Lake area. Hoelzl has now been sentenced to five days in prison and must serve 100 community hours. In addition to his sentence, Holzel must also apologize to the organizations the lawn signs represented.

The signs were valued at over $5,500 and when police found the stolen signs, Hoelzl had them neatly stacked and arranged. He'd been stealing and collecting signs over a period of 10 years, as he felt they were distracting to drivers.

Over that entire time, Hoelzl gave back only one sign.

On why he kept all of those signs Hoelzl told the court: "I suppose I thought in some future time I might use them."

You can watch the full video of Hoelzl explaining why he took the signs to a judge here.