Police yesterday showed off their haul, which ranged from signs warning of traffic hazards to an American flag.
Senior Constable Bruce Dow said that on Thursday, search warrants were executed on properties in Oamaru and Kakanui, resulting in two arrests for cannabis offences and several warnings issued. Some people were yet to be spoken to.
Although the searches were drug-related, police recovered stolen property including shopping trolleys, road signs, commercial signs and flags.
People who had shopping trolleys, all from the Countdown supermarket in Oamaru, were made to wheel them back.
Mr Dow said the signs were mostly found inside houses.
"They were probably taken when people were drunk and, when they woke up the following morning, they didn't know what to do with them," he said.
"Potentially, removing the [road] signs could have caused an accident."
The signs also represented a considerable investment for their owners.
Police would continue to execute search warrants during the coming weeks and he strongly recommended that anyone who had signs should return them to the owners or take them to Oamaru police station.
"We are prepared to take a reasonable approach with those returning signs," Snr Const Dow said.
