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Sign thieves...

SignManiac

New Member
Many many years ago, a new homeowner contacted me to make him a custom house sign. His home was a very nice expensive lakefront property that was situated between two other houses, one to his east and the other to his west.

One of the neighbors houses had a sign that designated their home as the East Wind. The other home had a sign that read The Trade Winds. Well I designed a nice sandblasted gold leaf sign for him and installed it. Within a month it was stolen. The thieves simply disconnected the french connector links and parted with it. The owner was pretty pissed and had me make a brand new replacement only this time I bolted the sign in place with countersunk lag bolts. Not to be deterred, the thieves came back with a chain saw and cut through both of the 4"x4" pressure treated posts.

I did end up making a third one but this time is was a plain flat painted sign. Here's the sign that was stolen!
 

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Pat Whatley

New Member
Why would anyone steal a sign ... regardless of the words on it ... gold maybe but hey thats very little egad American people be American

Let's see, over the years I've seen:

Countless Plywood signs painted over and relettered
-Plywood signs used in construction projects
-1/2" PVC signs used for homemade dimensional lettering
-Realtors stealing competitors yard signs
-College kids stealing road signs, bathroom signs, and anything with a beer logo on them
-One "sign shop in Mom's basement" guy who stole, stripped, and relettered banners because he couldn't find a supplier
-Souvenirs
-Resale...you'd be amazed at how many old signs I've seen in thrift stores, especially if it's sandblasted.
-Competing property owners. I've seen people with property for sale knock down the sign on their neighbors property which was for sale cheaper. When I sold my last house the house across the street and the one next door were also for sale. The night before my open house I went an "borrowed" their real estate signs. I had a signed contract Sunday night, the neighbors signs were re-installed right after that.
 
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