{"id":334521,"date":"2026-07-09T16:26:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T16:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/334521\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T16:26:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T16:26:15","slug":"man-arrested-following-investigation-into-damaged-and-stolen-campaign-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/334521\/","title":{"rendered":"Man Arrested Following Investigation into Damaged and Stolen Campaign Signs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/News-Release-Header-NEW-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1640\" height=\"450\" title=\"\" role=\"img\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On July 8, 2026, Russell James Ringland (DOB 08\/16\/1967) was arrested and charged with Criminal Mischief following an investigation into multiple damaged and stolen political campaign signs in Cape Coral.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On July 2, 2026, at approximately 10 a.m., officers with the Cape Coral Police Department responded to a business in the 1900 block of Del Prado Boulevard South in reference to a report of criminal mischief.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The complainant reported that multiple campaign signs for Cape Coral mayoral candidate John Gunter had been intentionally damaged sometime between the evening of July 1 and the early morning hours of July 2. The suspect cut the signs from their mounting frames, removing one sign from the business and two additional signs from a nearby location at Del Prado Boulevard South and Viscaya Parkway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The investigation was assigned to the Cape Coral Police Department\u2019s Property Crimes Unit. Detectives later learned that additional campaign signs for John Gunter had also been damaged and stolen from two other Cape Coral locations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Surveillance video obtained from a business near one of the crime scenes showed a white pickup truck pull up by one of the campaign signs. The driver exited the vehicle, walked to the sign, removed it from its mounting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through investigative efforts, detectives identified the suspect vehicle and determined it was registered to Russell James Ringland. On July 6, detectives responded to Ringland\u2019s registered address, where they located the white pickup truck parked in the driveway. While at the residence, detectives observed what appeared to be crumpled political campaign signs in plain view inside the vehicle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Based on the evidence gathered during the investigation, detectives established probable cause to arrest Ringland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On July 8, 2026, Ringland was arrested and charged with Criminal Mischief (Damage Greater Than $200 but Less Than $1,000). Two and a half signs were recovered. The investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/NR-Mugshot-Template-29.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"uag-image-14945\" width=\"1640\" height=\"450\" title=\"NR Mugshot Template (29)\" role=\"img\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-09-at-11.56.15-AM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"uag-image-14946\" width=\"925\" height=\"680\" title=\"Screenshot 2026-07-09 at 11.56.15\u202fAM\" role=\"img\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Recovered campaign signs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On July 8, 2026, Russell James Ringland (DOB 08\/16\/1967) was arrested and charged with Criminal Mischief following an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-334521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}