A Florida man who kept a storage unit full of stolen park signs has pleaded guilty in federal court, and it was the GPS in his own work vehicle that helped investigators put him at the scene.
Hunter Drake Lovett, 30, of Pace, Florida, pleaded guilty to felony theft of government property, U.S. Attorney John P. Heekin of the Northern District of Florida announced Tuesday.
According to court documents, state and federal agents searched a storage unit Lovett rented in Shalimar, Florida. Inside, they found hundreds of signs that had been taken from state and federal land across parts of Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.
Investigators then pulled GPS data from Lovett’s work vehicle. It showed he was close to multiple sign locations at the exact times the thefts happened, including the Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge and Conecuh National Forest.
The signs weren’t souvenirs. Prosecutors say Lovett sold or tried to sell them at antique malls, flea markets and on social media.
The signs have been widely described as national park signs, but the ones in the federal case actually came from land run by the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manage national forests and wildlife refuges. Those federal signs alone added up to $7,326.79, all of it paid for by taxpayers. Heekin made that point directly, saying Lovett thought he could cash in on signs the public paid for and is now facing the consequences.
Lovett faces up to 10 years in federal prison. His sentencing is scheduled for December 22, 2026, in Pensacola before U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service investigated the case. They had help from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement, the Eufaula Police Department in Alabama and the Florida Forest Service.
