Laguna Beach police retrieve ‘No on P’ election signs from 2006 Bentley while investigating alleged theft

LAGUNA BEACH — A man driving a Bentley was stopped by police Friday, Oct. 19, after a resident called law enforcement to report the theft of “No on P” election signs.

The incident was reported at 10:31 a.m. Friday, after a resident observed a man he described as being in his 30s to 40s, wearing business attire and driving a 2006 black Bentley, taking down “No on P” signs. The resident, Bryan Menne, gave the police the license plate number as he followed the car north along Coast Highway.

After 30 “no on P” signs were taken in two days, Menne said, he and others who support STOP (Stop Taxing Our Properties) — a grassroots opponent of Measure P — began staking out the signs to see if they could determine who was taking them.

On Nov. 6, residents will vote on Measure P, a plan to add a 1 percent sales tax over 25 years to bury overhead utility lines.

On Friday, Menne said, he had just finished breakfast at Ruby’s Diner and was in the restaurant’s parking lot when he saw the man in the Bentley driving south on Coast Highway pull over and and take the signs.

“In just five seconds he was in and out of his car,” Menne said. “I ran across four lanes of Coast Highway and took photographs of the man, his car and the car’s license plate.”

Then, he said, the man sped off, made a U-turn and headed south along Coast Highway. Menne called police to give his location as he followed the Bentley.

“At Jasmine, I heard police sirens and a police officer pulled around me after the Bentley. Then a second cop pulls up,” Menne said.

“The suspect, James Kretzschmar, was located in the 600 block of North Coast Highway in the black Bentley with several ‘No on P’ signs in the rear passenger seat of his vehicle,” said Laguna Beach Police Sgt. Jim Cota. “The signs were returned and a police report was taken.”

Jennifer Zeiter, who founded STOP and owns the signs, said she has asked for a police report and was told she would have it in three to five days. The report will be forwarded to the Orange County District Attorney’s office, Cota said.

The DA will review the case to determine if it warrants an arrest, said Rebecca Moss Fakhartousi, an OCDA spokeswoman.