California:

• Gilroy.    Gilroy Dispatch - Bring Back Those Stop Signs, Please.  ...two temporary signs were put at the corners of Third and Eigleberry streets.  It greatly helped to reduce speed and accidents at this corner... Two weeks ago they were taken down.  Two days ago there was an accident.  One driver fled the scene.   March 15, 2006. 

• Tehachapi.  Tehachapi News - TARR offers reward.  The Tehachapi Area Association of Realtors (TAAR) posted a $5000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for stealing or damaging real estate signs in the Tehachapi area, after a recent rash of thefts and vandalism.  May 1, 2006

Florida:

• Tampa.  St Petersburg Times On-Line - 250 service hours added in stop sign case.   Two defendants in the so-called missing stop sign case were ordered Thursday to spend 250 hours talking to children about their experience.  June 1, 2001. 

Georgia:

• Walker County.  Catoosa County news – Where’s your sign?  According to Walker County officials, the county road department spent about $90,000 in 2001 to replace damaged or missing signs. The cost increased to about $100,000 in 2002. Authorities predicted spending $200,000 for materials and labor in 2003.  January 29, 2004.

Iowa:

• Ames.  DOT -  Sign Vandalism is no joke, it’s a serious safety concern.  According to maintenance records, last year the Iowa Department of Transportation replaced over 500 vandalized state highway signs. Countless other signs were replaced by city street and county road departments. Local and state governments (and their taxpayers) are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair or replace signs that have been knocked over, covered with graffiti or stolen.  March 12, 1999.  

• Iowa State University.  CTRE - How many bullet holes does it take to kill a sign?    There are many kinds of vandalism.  While some people believe that shooting signs (see Figure 1) is the most common, a study by the Iowa Department of Transportation found that only about 11 percent of vandalized signs are shot by a gun.  Broken/knocked down signs and stolen signs ranked first and second, respectively, and gun-damaged signs third...  November 2000.

• Linn County:  CTRE Technology News - 911 sign vandalism takes bite out of local budgets.  Howard Cress, sign manager for the Linn County secondary roads department, says that Lynn County's materials cost to replace or repair rural road signs in 1996 was over $18,000... February 1997.   

• National Workshop.  Sign Vandalism - An Estimate of the National Cost.   Cost = $274,124,145 annually...   It should also be noted that the $274 million estimate does not include the additional costs associated with crashes and delays caused by missing or vandalized signs...   May 2000.

• National Workshop.  CTRE Technology News, page 6 – Signs of Improvement.  …On a national level, an organized endeavor to stop vandalism was initiated with the two day National Workshop on Sign Vandalism: An Invitation to make a Difference" held March 16-17, 1999 in Kansas City, Missouri.   Florida prosecutor Leland Baldwin spoke to workshop participants about the 1997 manslaughter conviction of three teenagers who stole a stop sign at a major Tampa intersection.   The sign less intersection was the site of a collision and subsequent deaths of several young victims...  June 1999.  

• Ottumwa.  The Ottumwa Currier – Vandals destroy city stop signs.  During the weekend, we had several [traffic] signs ran over by a vehicle, "said Skip Stevens, superintendent of Ottumwa Public Works Department. "Stop signs, school crossing signs, no parking signs.  The sad part about it is not only the cost to the taxpayers of Ottumwa, but the potential for an accident with injury or possible loss of life."...   March 14, 2006.  

• Shelby County.  Harlan Online.com - Sign Damage Tops $7000.   Shelby County Crimestoppers is offering a $500 reward to persons with information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of persons responsible for the vandalism...  55-60 signs have been damaged with spray paint or bullet holes, and need to be replaced. At a cost of $120 per sign, the damage is adding up quickly...  June 13, 2006.

Missouri:

• Dunklin County.  The Daily Dunklin Democrat – Sign vandalism a costly safety hazard.   Area Engineer Jeff Lambert says there are problems in Dunklin County with sign vandalism and stealing. His crews report they replace or repair some signs weekly. Most are in rural areas away from towns where there is not a lot of traffic.  February 13, 2004.

Montana:

·         Bozeman.   Bozeman Daily Chronicle - City wants to put a stop to sign protests.  Bozeman officials want to slam the brakes on a form of political protest that is destroying stop signs across the city… In the past nine months, the city has had to clean-up or replace nearly 160 stop signs with anti-war or anti-Bush messages scrawled on them with spray paint. The damage has so far cost the city $4,600.  July 24, 2004.

•  Bozeman.  LTAP Matters - Sign Vandalism Costly & Dangerous.  With our county dollars limited, we were having a serious problem with sign vandalism... Seventy-five percent of the budget, or $27,750, had to be used to replace signs and/or posts due to sign vandalism.  Summer 2005.

Nebraska:

• Lincoln. City of Lincoln - Citizens asked to report information on sign vandalism.  Mayor Don Wesely and Police Chief Tom Casady today urged citizens to report any information they may have concerning vandalism to about 50 stop signs in southeast Lincoln.  March 24, 2003.

North Carolina:

• Durham. MiddletownPress.com – Stop sign vandalism could cost town $3000.  The town’s Highway Department recently completed an inspection of the roads’ stop signs, finding 71 that have been either damaged or marked with graffiti.  May 10, 2003. 

 Oregon:

• Wasco County.  Wasco County Public Works - What you can do to stop sign vandalism.   There were over 100 stop, yield, warning, and destination signs removed or seriously damaged in Wasco County last year. 

• Washington County.  Land Use and Transportation Updates - Sign vandalism expensive and dangerous.   In the Portland area alone, ODOT estimates the cost to taxpayers due to vandalism and thefts of state highway signs at more than $350,000 a year. Even more costly are the potentially deadly consequences of removing or defacing road signs.  February 2003.   

South Carolina: 

• North Charleston.  WIStv - $30,000 in road signs stolen along N. Chas. Highway.   Someone has stolen several large signs planned for installation along a North Charleston highway. Police say someone took about $30,000 worth of signs, which a contractor had placed against a fence.  April 28, 2004.  

 Texas:

• Coryell County.  Texas Department of Transportation, News Release - Coryell County Vandals Filch Signs on Area FM Roads.  Lately, vandals have stolen signs on at least seven Farm-to-Market roads in Coryell County.  Those lonely stretches of highway can be particularly dangerous late at night. But, take down a stop sign on a rural road, and you've just turned that highway into a potential death trap...  in the last three months 75 signs have been stolen on FM 116, 1783, 185, 215, 929, 930 and 2412. It cost TxDOT more than $7,500 to replace the stolen signs...  February 10, 2005.

• Fort Bend County.  SimontonTexas.org - Street Sign Vandalism.  During Spring Break Weekend, a number of street signs and stop signs were intentionally and maliciously knocked down and damaged.   All of these signs were on major intersections.  The removal of these signs could have caused major traffic accidents leading to significant injury to our citizens as well as related property damage.  This was no simple prank.

• Hidalgo County.  US Roads - Road Injury Prevention & Litigation Journal.  When Stop Sign Was Downed Six Times in Seventeen Days, Texas DOT May Be Liable for Not Correcting Sign's Susceptibility to Vandalism.   In February of 1987, Maria Alicia Gonzalez was driving on FM 3072 with her sister, niece and her children. She failed to stop at an intersection and crashed into another vehicle. All occupants of Gonzalez' vehicle, save one, died at the scene.   July 2001.   

• Walker County.  The Huntsville Item -  Sign vandalism increasing in county.  ...The county budget for stolen and vandalized signs reflects about $13,000 out of the general fund yearly, but so far this year, commissioners have spent nearly $17,000 for replacements...  June 5, 2006.   

Virginia:

• Chincoteague Island.  Chincoteague Beacon - Island’s stolen street signs recovered.  The island street signs that were stolen late last month were finally recovered last week by the Chincoteague Police Department… 17 of the 28 stolen signs were recovered.  November 17, 2005. 

Wisconsin:

•  Manitowoc.  Manitowoc Herald Times – Reward offered for vandalized signs.  The local environmental conservation group Centerville Cares is offering a $150 reward for information that leads to the conviction of those responsible for vandalizing 13 signs sometime on Friday or Saturday that Centerville Cares installed in the Cleveland area... April 10, 2006.

• Wausau.  WSAW - Stop Sign Vandalism.  The Lincoln County Sheriff's Department has put its entire patrol on alert. They want to find the person responsible for damaging several stop signs in and around Merill... According to the Sheriff's Department, someone in a four-wheel vehicle is driving up to stop signs and knocking them over.