Road Sign Bandits back in the news

[Chase]

Sprouting like weeds, lawn signs hawking pizza specials and “fast cash now” continue to multiply along Delaware’s highways and byways, despite fines instituted seven years ago to deter illegal postings.

State enforcement officials say they can’t keep up with the pace. The more daring sign “bandits” are now shimmying up utility poles or using ladders to post their flimsy, often-fluorescent signs out of the reach of circulating crews from the state Department of Transportation.

“We’ll take the signs down on this side, all the way to the Maryland line,” roadside control agent Melissa Feldmann said last month while she removed a “Hiring School Bus Drivers” sign staked in the U.S. 40 median.

“We come back on the other side. By that time, they’re back. In the exact same locations,” Feldmann said of the frustrating process.

Many signs are posted by repeat offenders, according to the DelDOT whose staff enforces the state sign-pollution law. One in five signs removed in New Castle County since 2005 was traced to a corporation with a previous fine, officials said.

Fed up with the clutter, residents and politicians want DelDOT to boost sign patrols and urge the state to increase the fine of $25 a sign, which they view as too weak a penalty.


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there was a guy here on talkdelaware once that started a campaign to do something about this. i was going to post this in one of the threads that he started then i remembered, he PM'd me to tell me he had personal threats lodged against him for his topics here, i guess from the people leaving the signs, and asked they be deleted.

well i wont be deleting this.

funny thing is, i used to actually work as a "sign guy" on weekends from New York to Virginia. we followed the rules though, and we put out a lot of signs. friday afternoon we would put out 400 to 800 signs in about a 10 mile radius for whoever we were working for. we would hire sign waivers saturday and sunday (the people you see holding the signs), and we would pick up all the signs sunday night and go home. it was kind of fun, and good money.

we used to get in trouble for doing it sometimes (our boss did) and he payed the fines, but 90% of the time it was ok as long as we picked them up on sunday. the problem with these signs around Delaware is they are not being picked up, they are left indefinetly which creates a real problem.

[Josef]

Isn't the contact information on the signs? How hard is it to continue fining and punishing the people that do this?

[Chase]

usually they are not on the signs. ours never were. what happens is whoever, the state, city, etc, take the signs hostage and call the business...let's say its a furniture store. the furniture store then contacts their sign guy and relays the info to him, he then pays the fine, or the 2 split it, or whatever. once the fine is payed they go pick their signs up from the agency that took them.