Leaders of the Coalition to Keep Bodden Dump Free yesterday expressed dismay at the theft of dozens of protest signs across the community, saying replacements would cost hundreds of dollars.

“We don’t know who did it,” said Gregg Anderson, spokesman for the 75-member coalition, seeking to stop the transfer of the George Town Landfill to 110 acres outside Bodden Town, in Midland Acres, “and we can’t really point the finger at anybody. It could have been anybody, vagrants, someone with a shoebox that was given money, we don’t know. There are plenty of characters around.”

Police said yesterday they had received a 10am call on Monday that 25 yard signs had been stolen from the area. While no arrests had been made as of yesterday, a spokeswoman said, “inquiries were ongoing”.

In a Monday press statement, coalition representatives called the theft “a malicious act” that violated “our democratic right of expression”, and called on government and Dart Realty to condemn the theft and “disassociate themselves from this action”.

Feelings in the community have run high as the Dart-government ForCayman Investment Alliance moves to close and remediate George Town’s 68-acre landfill site, replacing it with a “waste-management facility” near Bodden Town, offering recycling and discrete disposal areas for varying classes of refuse.

Area residents oppose the move, saying it will pollute wetlands, threaten disease, damage property values and endanger both personal and professional elements in the community. The group, started in mid-November, has mounted a prolonged campaign to keep the landfill — and longstanding waste-to-energy plans for generation of electricity and potable water — on its present site, adjacent to Dart ‘s multi-million-dollar Camana Bay mixed-use community, which the company seeks to expand.

“We vehemently condemn this malicious action perpetrated against opponents of the government/Dart plan to relocate the George Town dump to Bodden Town”, the coalition said.

Alain Beiner, a spokesman for the group said, the coalition had more than 50 signs dotted around the district, and described the theft as “done systematically along the main Bodden Town Road.”

Replacements, he said, would cost CI$648. “We already have signs on hand to replace some of the lost ones, which we’ll be reinstalling – and remitting to new people in the Belford Estates area.” Mr Beiner said, alluding to the latest coalition sympathisers in a residential development near the Bodden Town Police Station.

According to its statement, the group was encouraging “each affected supporter to contact the police to complete the coalition’s report, while it orders new yard signs to replace each and every stolen one. The coalition will also be launching a fund drive to recoup the cost of the signs, and appeals for help to all those opposed to the senseless relocation of the dump to Bodden Town.”

“I have already some requests out and have started the appeal,” Mr Anderson said yesterday.

Mr Beiner acknowledged that the problem could recur, but hoped a combination of vigilance and respect would discourage any repetition.

“Yes, there is a chance that the new signs will be stolen as well, but we’re sincerely hoping that a clear statement of condemnation from government (and Dart) will help rein in any ‘out-of-control’ government/Dart supporters. And, we do intend to keep a closer watch during the night,” he said.

“As well, the police are conducting a full investigation, with the possibility over the next couple of days of accessing some security camera footage from a business along the main road in Bodden Town,” Mr Beiner said.

Yesterday the FCIA said, “Neither Dart nor government condone theft or any other illegal activity.”