Vandalism, Theft Of Traffic Signs On The Rise

Dorm rooms, kids’ rooms, man caves – all locales where traffic and street signs have been utilized as part of the décor. It is a common sight; however, it could also be evidence of a crime.

Grant County Public Works Supervisor Shaun “Sam” Minks is all too familiar with the possible crime connection with an upsurge of vandalism and theft of traffic signs within Grant County.

“We have been noticing more since November – I don’t have any idea why it has increased, but it has been more noticeable,” Minks said. “Some of (those responsible) are knocking signs down with their vehicles and taking the whole sign. Some are pulling the anchor on the steel signs directly out of the ground and taking the whole thing and some are cutting them down with a hatchet or something – just whacking away at them.”

Even though entire posts were being taken initially, the perpetrators don’t always keep the post.

“They will take them, take the signs off of (the posts) and then drive about five miles or so and then throw the post in the ditch, but the signs won’t be with them,” Minks said. “It is happening more and more.”

When the post is taken at the time of the thefts, Minks says someone should notice something.

“If someone is taking the whole thing, someone should be able to see it,” he said. “You are talking about a 10-12 foot post sticking out of a vehicle… (and) parents should see a sign that doesn’t belong showing up in their house (if it’s kids taking them). ”

The ironic part of the theft of signage is that Minks may have one he could just give them.

“If someone wants a sign, we have old signs we can’t use  we will let them have,” he said. “We have a pile of signs. There is no sense to it.”

Although they aren’t the reflective ones utilized for traffic control, some signs can also be purchased a various retail outlets and Online stores.

Theft isn’t the only issue, according to Minks, some of the signs haven’t been taken, but they have suffered damage.

“There has been a lot of shooting of signs,” Minks said. “Most of the signs being shot are along the blacktop roads. If you take the truck route you can drive around and see all the signs shot on the truck route. There are houses behind them, so how is it that nobody is hearing the gunshots?”

Shooting signs could result in more than just vandalism.

“They could possibly hit a house and hurt someone,” Minks said, adding that sometimes those responsible have taken the signs, but later discarded them. “They will take them, use them for target practice and then turn around and throw them in the ditch when they are done doing target practice.”

Minks and his crew have attempted to save taxpayers money when they can.

“Sometimes we can take an old sign and refurbish it, but if it has bullet holes in it we can’t,” he said. “If the reflectivity is bad after five years we can take and lay another sign over it so it’s good again, but if it has holes in it there is no way we can do that. We try to refurbish them every five years and get them back up and save some money that way but the (vandalism) is keeping us from doing that.”

Damage to traffic signs isn’t the only vandalism county employees have been dealing with.

“We are having a problem with someone doing donuts on county roads,” Minks said. “They are spinning out doing donuts on all the corners and intersections – that’s happening a lot too.  We are getting calls from farmers because the road is torn up. It’s like they are watching our graders go through and then they come and do it – they tear up the road right behind us.”

Minks said farmers were upset because those responsible are tearing up fields too.

“It’s hard enough to keep the soil in the field with the wind and how dry it’s been - driving through them makes it worse,” he said, noting that if a farmer has planted crops there, those responsible are causing damage there, too.

It’s all fun and games until the tally for the damage is assessed and more importantly, until someone gets hurt.

“Someone could probably wreck from hitting the ruts too hard caused by them tearing up the roads,” Minks said. “They could cause someone to have an accident – they could roll their vehicle and it could end up causing someone to lose their life.”

The missing traffic signs could also cause irreparable harm.

“Signs missing could also result in an accident,” Minks said. “Someone not from here could come through and there is no signage – two vehicles could hit and boom, that would be it. That came close to happening on Road H and 14. Someone took the stop signs from both directions there.”

Missing signage has included railroad crossing signs.

“They are being pulled, too,” Minks said. “So a vehicle could go right across the crossing if there is no sign. We have nothing to do with the highway signage – that is the Kansas Department of Transportation’s. But the county roads – we take care of those.”

There have been no reported accidents thus far due to missing signage, according to Minks, who added, “And I hope there will never be. It’s a scary situation. I don’t remember it happening in the past like it is now. It has gotten really bad in the last three months.”

Taxpayers are paying for those responsible to “have their fun.”

“Taxpayers ultimately pay for this and the cost varies,” Mink said. “The regular signs like stop signs, yield signs, stop ahead signs, railroad crossing signs – they run from $120 to $150 each. Road construction signs are more expensive. They are between $160 to $180 each. That is the cost for the sign and the post. Our budget isn’t very big so the more damage that is done the more it hurts us (as taxpayers).”

And replacement costs are not all of the cost, Minks said, there is also manpower and fuel. Plus, missing signs have to be replaced as quickly as possible.

“Gabe Flores is our traffic control guy,” Minks said. “(Flores) has to drive around all the time checking the roads and make sure the signage is okay. A stop sign has to be replaced according to traffic laws within 24 hours once it has been reported as missing. Once it has been turned in by someone as missing, we have to get it fixed. Even if it’s on the weekend. If it’s missing and we find out about it on the weekend, (taxpayers) are paying overtime for us to get it done.”

Minks said there were 15 to 20 taken in November and then things slowed down for a short time.

“They slowed down in December and only stole four,” he said. “Then this last weekend, on January 20-23, we had seven signs stolen. They hit us hard that weekend.”

On top of the wages paid to county employees, there are other expenses associated with fixing the roads.

“For a grader to go and fix a road it is probably $150 per hour to go out and clean that road back up,” Minks said. “Then we also have the cost of diesel and labor – diesel isn’t cheap right now.”

It is also costing employees to lose time working on their regular duties.

“We lose time taken away from other duties and projects,” Minks said. “Four days we do our regular work, and I would say we have been having to use one full day out of five days (in the week) to clean up messes.”

Minks believes a lot of the vandalism and theft may be from kids.

“I don’t see a grown adult trying to chop a sign down,” he said. “Anybody smart enough is going to back up to it and knock it over. Same way with the donuts, I think kids are doing the donuts, too.”

A few have already been caught.

“The sheriff’s department did catch some on four wheelers,” Minks said. “They were dropping four wheelers off, tearing up the roads and then loading the four wheelers back up in to a pickup and coming back to town. They were destroying the roads.”

Those responsible for the vandalism and thefts could face more than they bargain for.

"If caught tearing up the roads, they could be charged with reckless driving, and criminal damage to property,” said Grant County Sheriff James Biddle, adding that those knocking down signs and taking them, could be charged with criminal damage and theft.

Although typically misdemeanor charges, that could change if the same people are responsible for all of it.

“If the same person is doing all of it,” Biddle said. “It could add up to felony charges.”

Charges could also change if someone is hurt or killed as a result of these crimes.

“Signs missing are a traffic hazard,” Biddle said. “Someone not used to that area going through an intersection could possibly be injured or even a fatality could happen. Then those responsible could face more charges at that time including manslaughter.”

Although it could be kids responsible, it could just as easily be adults.

“Who’s to say it’s not an adult who wants to line their garage with signs?” Biddle said.

Damages totaling $1,500 or more can be classified as felonies.

The vandalism and theft is happening within a five mile radius of Ulysses.

If anyone has information regarding these crimes, they are asked to contact the Grant County Sheriff’s Department at 620-356-3500.