craigdailypress.com

Stealing construction signs may be considered a harmless prank, but it could end up causing irreparable damage.

Several signs and two dozen traffic cones were stolen last weekend from a construction site on Moffat County Road 4.

Jeff Whilden, who works with the Moffat County Road and Bridge crew, said in addition to the stolen signs and cones, one sign was left vandalized.

He said that a sign that originally read "Loose Gravel" had been defaced so that it read "Loose Grave."

Whilden said that the vandal or vandals had taken their time to scratch out the "l."

"This is not someone (just) being brazenly stupid," he said.

Whilden said he is a "sign guy" with the Road and Bridge crew, which means it is his job to find and replace damaged signs.

He said that when he arrived at the construction site Monday morning, the first thing that was obvious was that the traffic cones were missing.

"My co-worker and I walked around the project and noticed a couple signs were missing, too," Whilden said.

Five signs were stolen, most of which pertained to driver safety around the construction site.

Whilden said that the "reduce speed ahead," "roadwork ahead" and "do not pass" signs could have caused some problems for drivers.

"These signs mean something and are important," Whilden said. "In some cases, the driver is not going to get the proper information."

Whilden said that all the signs were in tact Thursday afternoon when the crew left the construction site.

"This happened sometime between Thursday afternoon and Monday morning," he said. "That could be three days that the public was at risk."

Deputy Skip Duncan, with the Moffat County Sheriff's Office, said that stolen signs are a problem that all communities face.

"Its an ongoing problem that happens everywhere," he said. "We are trying to get a handle on it."

Duncan said that stealing the construction signs is considered theft of property, but if anything happens to a driver because of the missing signs, the thieves could be held responsible.

In 1997, three Florida teens were killed when they drove through an intersection and got hit by an eight-ton truck.

The intersection they drove through was missing a stop sign because it was stolen.

Three people where convicted of manslaughter for the deaths, because they stole a stop sign.

Duncan said that stealing signs opens the public up to a lot of potential hazard.

"The signs are there to (warn) drivers of a hazard that they are approaching," he said.

Whilden said there is also a large problem in Moffat County with people shooting street signs.

He said that replacing shot-out signs is a much bigger problem for his crew.

"The worst part of (people shooting signs) is that they don't worry about where the bullet is going to go after it goes through the sign," Whilden said.

Duncan said that people caught shooting street signs would face the same charges as people caught stealing them.

"If we can show that shooting them out creates a hazard for drivers, (the offenders) could be held responsible," he said.

Anyone who has any information about this crime or any other stolen signs is urged to call the Moffat County Sheriff's Office at 824-4495.

Dominic Graziano can be reached at 824-7031, ext. 209, or dgraziano@craigdailypress.com.