RACINE - Sean Sorenson stood beside his red pickup truck Wednesday, pointing out the spots where U.S. flags covered his vehicle a week ago.

The flags had draped the hood, were stuck in door handles and stood on poles in the truck bed.

Sorenson, 21, thought the flags' appearance was just a simple prank but things became more serious Monday when a story in The Journal Times made him realize the flags were stolen from his neighbors. Several of the flags have since been returned to their rightful owners and the rest have been inventoried by the Racine Police Department, which is investigating the thefts.

"I was just mad. If you want to pull a prank on somebody, you do it to them," Sorenson said, not his or her belongings. "You don't touch another man's vehicle and especially with American flags. It's just flat-out disrespectful."

The flags were likely stolen the night of Oct. 27 from the neighborhood near Sorenson's home in the 1300 block of Monroe Avenue. He found the flags around noon Oct. 28 and called police, he said.

But no flags had been reported stolen yet so nothing happened. He took the flags off his truck and put them in the garage for safekeeping, in case they were reported stolen.

Then on Monday Sorenson saw a Journal Times story about three flag thefts a few blocks from his home and he knew where the flags on his truck must have come from. By Tuesday night Sorenson, his dad and a friend were knocking on the doors of homes mentioned in The Journal Times article. They managed to return three flags in the 3300 block of Wright Avenue where three homes all in a row had reported missing flags.

"We were happy they came back and kind of amazed at the story behind it," Cathi Webster, 46, said Wednesday as a U.S. flag once again hung from the pole in her front yard. Another U.S. flag and a Harley Davidson flag were also returned Tuesday to Webster's neighbor, Christopher Cleveland.

The remaining nine flags were turned over to police Tuesday night. One of them was picked up Wednesday morning by a man living in the 3700 block of Wright Avenue, said Sgt. Bernie Kupper, public information officer for the Racine Police Department.

The remaining flags include two U.S. flags without poles, four U.S. flags with poles, one POW/MIA flag with no pole and two Green Bay Packers flags with poles, Kupper said.

Sorenson and his neighbors said they assume Sorenson's friends took the flags to be funny, but so far no one has fessed up. And no one is laughing.

"Two-thirds of my family are veterans," Sorenson said, angry about how the flags were used. "My cousin (served) two tours in Iraq."

Many of the homes where flags were taken also have ties to the military: Cleveland's son is a computer technician currently in Iraq and Webster has two nephews stationed in the Persian Gulf with the Navy.

Webster's other neighbor, Lisa Bixler, also had a flag stolen, a flag she bought to remind herself of her son Evan, who was killed while serving in Iraq in 2006.

Bixler's flag has not yet been found.

"I'm disappointed and sad but you can't change what is. I've replaced the one that was stolen," she said. "Maybe it'll turn up in somebody's home and they'll know it doesn't belong there but there's nothing else I can do."

Video courtesy Channel 12.