Traffic Sign - Street Sign Theft

Street sign theft occurs when street signs are stolen, often to be used as decorations, but also sometimes to avoid obeying the law by claiming later the sign was not there. Although the theft often seems arbitrary, signs that are unusual or amusing tend to be stolen more frequently. Sometimes considered to be a prank by the perpetrators, the theft is often costly and inconveniencing for the municipality or agency that owns the sign. In the United States, each street sign generally costs between $100 and $500 to replace.

Popular culture can act as a catalyst to street sign theft. Bands such as The Beatles and Lynyrd Skynyrd have exacerbated street sign theft as their songs and albums include real place names including Penny Lane, Blue Jay Way, Abbey Road, and Brickyard Road.

A provocative street name or other name on the sign can also trigger thefts. Well-known examples include Ragged Ass Road in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and Butt Hole Road in Conisbrough, Doncaster, England. Also frequently stolen are place name signs for the village of Fucking, Austria.

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Famous quotes containing the words street, sign and/or theft:

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    Sydney Carroll, U.S. screenwriter, and Robert Rossen. Sarah (Piper Laurie)

    Whether he admits it or not, a man has been brought up to look at money as a sign of his virility, a symbol of his power, a bigger phallic symbol than a Porsche.
    Victoria Billings (b. 1945)

    Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
    Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969)