I've been a sign ripper for a few years and was sure there had to be some like minded people in the USA. Living a life of leisure gives me some time to take extra action to help keep my rancho grande litter free.

In a former life I'd dismiss snipe signs as just part of the urban scenery when I saw them in large cities in the bay area. Then they began showing up in my town. I noticed how out of place they looked. Should I complain? Should I call the number on the sign and read them the code? Aw, just consider it an act of "Keep America Beautiful" and pick up any litter.

Signs are still very rare, but when they show up I'll take the time to take them down. Currently it's the Christmas light "pros" (they are not even insured! What happens when they get hurt on your property? They are climbing on high ladders handling 110 AC lights!), then expect to see signs offering to rent out your home durning golf events.

Btw, I'm using coroplas to insulate my 30 year old shed. Cuts easy, goes up with a staple gun.

Carmel, CA

Hi:

Glad you are helping keep Carmel beautiful. We're dealing with illegal christmas lights signs here in Colorado, too - we got Code Enforcement involved this year. I'd suggest calling CE, but not the spammers. If you do, remember to call from a pay phone.

DenverShark

Thanks for the reply.

Former telco worker here, very aware of ANI and the hazards of calling toll free numbers. And signs nailed into utility poles really, really cause me to have no respect for any business big or small that advertises that way.

ttyl

Good to see more folks joining the Causs.

We get the Christmas lights ads here too in Las Vegas. Sounds like this year they are going bigger here, with an A-frame sign you pull behind your truck and park in a desert lot at a busy intersection.

But I remove the same guys signs every year. This guy has the same sign year after year. I find it in neighborhoods 20 miles apart. Usually in the same areas I see moreof the other illegal signage, Carpet Cleaning, We buy Junk Cars...

Thanks again for posting, and look forward to hearing more of your experiences.

wevl

Newly active 'Shark' here in So Cal... always been a sign ripper, big pet peeve of mine... surprised to find this website today. Unfortunately not surprised at the major lack of activity here. So many posts are many years old. Figures, too many people just don't care enough to make positive changes in our communities. Once again, the people who care make up a tiny drop in the bucket of population. Just can't fathom how people like to live in 'filth'.

Makes our cities look like ghettos (drive into a crap neighborhood and you will see signs (illegal littering) everywhere... drive into a 'fancy' neighborhood and you won't see any... which neighborhood would you want to live in Spammers? It would seem that people just don't care really or just care 'silently'. I have started calling CE and trying to clean up my neighborhood. Recently met my enemy #1 (who I take down signs weekly from) in-the-act and politely told him what he is doing is illegal in our city, and even told him of a couple of VERY active community bulletin boards that he is sure to get some real business from (I am PRO small business man, but we have societal laws for a reason). He was polite (and seemed scared) and for a month, he stopped doing it. He has since started doing again, but frequency is waaaaaay lower. CE doesn't seem to do anything, ever, and has a real dont-give-a-crud attitude.

What really blew my mind today was seeing the posts on here from the offenders... "they" are actually pissed at "us" and think we are the psychos??? What the heck? They actually take time to post here, and what they post is mind blowing, about vigilantes etc... we are just people who care and don't like trash in our neighborhoods. They are the problem, we are part of the solution. Wow, so sad for the human race that this is what we have become. People just don't know right/wrong anymore. Ug.

Hi:

Good to see you here. Please keep in mind that not every shark finds out about CAUSS and/or actually post here. Many people simply stop by periodically but continue to remove illegal signs on their corners.

Thanks for your support - keep up the good work!

DenverShark

I take care of my little section of the world. The sign bandits learn to avoid this area, as I am releentless. However, I openly carry a gun and have had to show it to some from them to realize I am serious about being left alone.

Who said "An armed society is a polite society?"

But whether you carry means of self defense or not, CAUSS always recommends to avoid conflict with illegal street spammers if at all possible.

Cheers,

DenverShark

Still active as ever. The Christmas light "pros" did one more wave of signs and dropped off the face of the planet it seems. The second stage of signs was staked in the ground - different from the first stage of signs nailed to utility poles.

Next assignment was Cash For Gold placards. 2'x3' signs with double stakes. There were 3 on public property in front of vacant buildings, one in front of a park, one near Walgreens and a whopping dozen between the freeway offramp and the hotel the brokers used.

Collateral damage wrought on 2 flea market signs on utility poles.

merry Christmas!

I made a difference!

In December, Ca$h For Gold billboards lined the busy connector road in 4 directions on the day that the events were held at a hotel. I managed to vaporize 15 signs, several of them while a live sign dancer 'performed'.

Was the dancer looking out for his companies signage? I don't know, but it made for interesting action - stand at the bus stop, wait for a big semi to stop at the light between the dancer and the clean up crew. Whoosh, sign is GONE.

The same metal munchers were back last week, but their shiny new billboard signs (these things are BIG - 4'x3') only stood in the hotel's landscaping areas. Looked ugly as sin, but if the hotel oks it...

No signs were seen anywhere else.

I did that once - there was a sign twirler standing among some illegal signs stuck in the ground. The illegal signs disappeared and the twirler never saw a thing. Some were 3 feet behind him. Got a lot of thumbs up and smiles from drivers.

You guys should get the metal of honor. Sneeking up behind them and then confronting them. Some of those guys can be pussycats but others get to be unpredictable about there trashy little signs of gold.

Good stories.

Oh by the way, it might good to start a log and log your hours, and keep track of where when the bandits post their signs, if your going to be all over town. I didn't start tracking real good til a couple years into this.

I make a sheet with the street in the first column then the crossstreet next to that, space it with the company name number, another space, then the amount of signage removed(7). Could put street direction too, S.B.,W.B. etc..

Some intersection will have three different companies down the same column. Then, in any remaining space you could put in info like how long the sign might have been up, and time you removed it.

Over on the left column before the street, I might throw in the time of day, and wheather I did this on my bike or in my car. At the end of the day I add up the time and put it on the top of the page in big numbers so I can keep track of the time I spent on each page. After months of removal I can add everything up, and check my records real fast for a problem Spamkie, noting his days of operendie.


Usually I like to do a map too on the oposite facing page. And if really bored I make another map of each companies signs I remove with the info of only the removal intersection on the map, and the amount removed. This draws a good picture of the streets the Spamkie operates on a regular basis.

I do all the paper work at the house, using a camera with a time and date stamp to keep track of bigger removals.

wevl

Updates

Several yellow plastic signs with handwritten pitches for "Bank Owned Homes" (don't the banks own most homes already?) appeared. Took them out, at one location the offer reappeared twice. Sign placer favored areas where legit real estate signs congregate like entrances to gated areas.

The Ca$h for Gold mini billboards lost a lot of steam but persist. My previous post of success was shattered when 2 or 3 signs would show up out of bounds of the event's hotel. I was busted by the sign dancer once while uprooting a sign, amazing the shallow intelligence level of the person. I could have told him I was from the event and wanted to move the sign to another corner and he'd believe me. But I didn't, I told him I consider it litter and being a good citizen I pick up trash and throw it away. He called his boss, I offered to return the sign - as long as it does not get placed on public property - and we parted ways. I still get about 2 signs every time they hold a gold buying event. They have not bought any more signs it seems. There are fewer and fewer around the hotel.

Got one more Cash for Gold spammer - this one sticks business cards everywhere with clear packing tape. News racks, stop signs, buildings, phone booths, bus shelters, light poles and so on. A small annoyance but real good to get me out of the car for some exercise. I may cover 20 blocks and get 5 or 6 cards. IMO it's better than walking around a football field over and over like I see other people.

Lastly, an email to CE resulted in no action.