Yesterday I noticed a sign for carpet a cleaning service placed near the exit of a strip mall. That is quite common in my region. This sign was made of metal, it was welded to a piece of heavy rebarb (concrete reinforcement rod) and the rod was driven into the ground, quite deep. I could not pull it out. So I got my can of spray paint and covered the contact info., then bent the rod to the ground to make the sign almost invisble.

That rebar could hurt someone who does not see it or damage a mower that hits it. I loathe doing that, and make all attempts to remove such things.

It is a tactic that is used when I have sharked signs repeatedly. They seek to make them harder to get.

I have seen attempts to drive them so deep that they cannot be pulled up. I have seen attempts to screw them up high on telephone poles with one way screws and huge bolts and steel backing. I laugh at the attempts to cable-lock or chain them to street signs.... Oooooo... Sometimes they get those doggie stake-out screws and screw them in so deep that they cannot be gotten ahold of to unscrew.

Of course, I just bring the Dodge truck and a snatchem strap. Or I use the BABCs. (Big __ssed Bolt Cutters) Pipe wrenches and wrecking bars... Then, when a really eggregous spammer makes that hard, I charge up the battery-powered sawzall....

One prolific spammer videotaped me with my ladder and a wrecking bar removing his sign. I got to the bottom, and highlighted my adopt-a-mile shirt and took a deep bow... He took it directly to the police and showed them his tape and was quite serious in his attempt to have me arrested for criminal destruction of property. While he was waiting for the clerk to summon an officer to take his report, Code Enforcement showed up to give him a summons... I later talked with the CE Officer whio laughed heartily at that one.

Their imagination is only limited by my destructive tendencies....

Wow - that's a great story!!!

DenverShark

It's made me laugh too. I imagine the spammers are getting madder and madder.

Its like, Mad vs Mad

wevl

Kick arce - strap’um, slap’um, and snap’um

Thanks for this entertaining story. I will post one of my own from yesterday.

I live in New Orleans, and one of things I do is to keep St. Charles Avenue and Magazine Street clear of plastic bandit signs. This is actually relatively easy, since these are famous and safe streets where most people agree bandit signs have no place. Occasionally someone puts up a bunch and I take them down. I think other people do as well.

One straggler has been a T-shirt shop whose owner puts plastic signs advertising his store way up high on two telephone poles -- one outside his store and one on the pole across the street. They are way up high, so you need a ladder plus a pole to get to them. (In fact they're so high I don't think most drivers even see them.) A few months ago I took them down but a few weeks later they were back up.

I decided to take them down again yesterday. I knew this was a bit more risky than the typical sign removal, but the store is closed on Sunday and the first time there was no hassle.

It turned out there was a charity walk going down Magazine and the street was closed to cars, forcing me to drive to the intersection on back streets. A cop was standing right there, so just to be safe I told her what I was going to do and she said -- "Yeah, I hate those signs, go ahead."

I took down the signs, thinking well that worked out great -- it's not often I get police protection.

As I'm walking back to my car, a block away, the owner comes out and starts screaming: "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING THAT FOR?” When I tried to reply, he kept shouting: DON’T TELL ME HOW TO RUN MY BUSINESS, I'LL JUST PUT THEM UP AGAIN, WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?, ETC. I tried to make the point that he's the only business owner putting up illegal signs on the entire street and that if everyone did the same the street would look like hell, but I don't think I ever got out the complete thought because he kept interrupting me.

So I got in my car and drove away. All in all it was kind of entertaining, but one mildly unnerving thing was that he also was taking pictures of my car and now has my license plate. He didn’t seem dangerous but that’s the first time that’s happened.

I agree, it is always best to remove the stakes, and I am concerned someone could be injured by them. In this case, that is not a concern. When I wrote "almost invisible", I meant to cars driving out the exit of the strip mall. To anyone who would walk close to the sign, it is qute visible, no chance to cause injury or damage to a lawn mower.

As far as the T-shirt shop owner getting mad, I would call him and identify yourself as a member of the neighborhood association, or something like that. Tell him that residents and business owners in the area are complaining about his signs. (Representing a group is better than complaining as an individual)
I always speak politely, insults or foul language will not win people over. Besides, he may tape the call, so don't give him anything that he could possibly file a complaint about. Mention that one of the members had a confrontation recently, and that the police support sign removal.
Keep removing the signs, I would print out the city code where it states such signs are illegal, keep it in your car in case you get into another argument. If he keeps posting signs, keep calling him. I call early in the morning and leave messages for street spammers to call one another trying to make sales. Send him lots of calls. Drives them nuts. Then I call them and tell them the calls will stop when the signs are gone.
I use a prepaid cell phone to make calls, untraceable.

I use plumbing pipe to remove signs on tel. poles. I keep 4 pieces of 4 ft. length pipe. One has a sharpened bolt through it to pierce and remove the sign. Threaded sleeves connect them. No need for ladders.

Good luck

Nice story!

There is a recent story on the Colorado forum about an officer actually getting up on the hood of his car to help a guy take down a sign.



DenverShark