Posted on 09/27/2010 12:35:53 PM PDT by JoeProBono
DARIEN, Ga., An official in a Georgia county says the solution to a rash of sign thefts is to switch to "boring" street names.
McIntosh County Commissioner Mark Douglas said the solution to repeated thefts of signs marking Green Acres, Boone's Farm, Mary Jane Lane and Harmony Hill is to make the name of the streets less interesting, Morris News Service reported Monday.
"Boring names," Douglas said. "That might be about the only thing we can do. We're actually losing a lot of our good taxpayers' money to folks who get their kicks stealing signs."
County Manager Luther Smart said the county loses about $17,000 a year due to sign thefts.
"We're losing something like 550 signs a year to theft," he said. "The most popular ones, we've replaced five to 10 times. They steal them as fast as we can make them and put them back up."
Smart said sign thieves can face stiff penalties.
"They don't understand the liability issue," he said. "If they cause an ambulance or fire truck not to be able to find a location in distress, they could be charged with a felony, and they will also be responsible for any monetary damages incurred as a result."
How about “Blah Avenue,” and “So, So Lane”?
Al Gore Ave?? John Kerry Blvd??
I live on Railroad St.
“I was robbed on A Street, beaten on B Street, Southie’s my home town.”
How about making them a little harder to steal.
Try welding the signs to the pole instead of bolting them (or just weld the bolt & nut together so you have to cut the sign off).
Anchor the sign post in concrete.
Those two steps would probably eliminate 90% of the theft. People steal these things for fun. They aren’t going to work at it.
I find it hard to believe that emergency vehicles in this day and age are not equipped with some kind of GPS device to assist in finding their locations.
Why not just go to latitude/longitude.
Nothing could be more boring, but, it would be very educational as well, and easy for GPS systems too.
Around here they use a long bolt then bend the bolt after the nut goes on.
They do that in Indiana rural or at least they used to. My address used to be 700N 300W (as measured from county center).
Or they could sell copies. Smaller and easier to decorate a home with.
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