NORTH ATTLEBORO -- About 100 campaign signs belonging to planning board candidate Dick Houle were plucked from local lawns over the weekend, lead ing to a police investigation of the thefts.

While candidates typically lose signs during the election season, police said that the sheer number of signs taken from just one candidate is unusual.

No other candidates in the April 4 town election have reported the theft of signs, police said.

The incident is under inves tigation, police Detective Lt. David Dawes said.

Houle said he was shocked by the theft of his campaign signs, which together cost about $750. `` Your guess is as good as mine as to who did this,'' Houle said.

`` I'm not running a big campaign here, but it's not really the money that bothers me.

`` This is the town of North Attleboro. I'd like to think that people have a little more honesty and integrity than that,'' he said.

Houle said he began receiving calls from friends and neighbors Saturday night asking if he had removed his campaign signs from their lawns.

Despite the late hour, Houle said he drove through town and found only bare, grassy spots where he had previously planted signs.

`` I'm sure things like this happen every year, but it's never been 100 signs belonging to one candidate taken in one swoop through the entire town,'' Houle said. `` My signs were taken in locations where there were 12 other signs and nobody else's were touched.''

Houle said he will replace some of the signs, but said he is concerned that the new signs could vanish, as well.