Teens make amends and clean up vandalized signs

A group of teens who vandalized political campaign signs over the weekend are making amends, the mother of one of them said Wednesday.

"They've spent every day after school this week cleaning up their mess by replacing and cleaning up all the signs, and they wrote a nice letter of apology to Deputy (Bob) Guimont," said mother Nora McCoy.

By Wednesday evening, the group had completed the task, she said.

Sunday morning, Bob Guimont, a candidate for Carson City sheriff, discovered at least three dozen of his campaign signs throughout the city had been either stolen or painted over.

About the same time, a Carson City couple who had set up a surveillance camera in an attempt to catch whoever was burglarizing their vehicles instead captured the images of the teens defacing the campaign signs.

Guimont, a deputy with the Carson City Sheriff's Department, faces Ken Furlong, an investigator with the Nevada Division of Investigation, in the Nov. 5 general election.

Police found all six teen vandals -- five boys and one girl -- and each was given a citation.

"We deeply regret our actions and hope you will accept our apologies. Our actions were not only misguided but completely unjustified and unjustifiable," the teens said in the letter to Guimont. "We assure you that your signs will be in excellent condition for Nevada Day."

Guimont said he was "pleasantly surprised" by the teens' attitudes.

"They are being more than responsible. A lot of times we (at the sheriff's department) deal with juveniles who have committed crimes and some juveniles regret what they've done and some don't and instead are proud of it," Guimont said.

"These kids actually saw the problem and corrected it on their own. I admire them for taking responsibility for what they did."