There's a flag thief on the loose in Milwaukee. Several east side neighbors say their flags were stolen right from their property.

Early in the morning December 10, 2016, Nicholas La Joie's surveillance camera caught a young looking guy in a knit cap pulling his Milwaukee flag from it's bracket. Julie Krawczyk says someone stole her "414" flag days later.

"They cut the ropes, and just, it fell and they took it away," Krawczyk said.

An alert neighbor called police after seeing two people milling about.

"And then (he) saw one of them walk back this way and then come walking back with a flag," she added.

Seems to be happening a lot on the east side around Downer and Newberry.

"They took ours, they took Nick's, they took Paul's," Krawczyk said.

Paul Toonen's flag was up pretty high, so whoever stole it, he thinks had to climb up to get it.

"And then, for some reason, he took the time to stand on the sidewalk and take it off the pole and left me the pole and the bracket," Toonen added. "It's not a big loss, it's just annoying that so many houses got hit."