Cop 1, Soccer Mom -2

I was siting on the front porch this morning when an SUV pulls up across the street. Out jumps Soccer Mom talking on her bluetooth headset and leaves the door hanging open in traffic. She goes back a few feet and staples a Yard Sale sign to the wooden light pole.

As she is getting back in the SUV a cop car pulls in behind and turns his lights on. He get out and goes to talk to her then back to his car and I can see that he is writing up something. He gets out, goes to her car and hands her some papers. At this point she gets out, takes the sign down and then leaves.

Since I know the cop and my curiosity was getting the best of me, I go over to talk to him. Ask what he ticketed her for.

He gave her a traffic citation for obstructing traffic(leaving the door open) and a $50 municipal infraction for defacing public property(stapling the sign to the pole). He also told her if he found any more of her signs stapled to light poles he would write another infraction for each one.

She is going to have a rather expensive yard sale.

I wish more people would get tickets for their stupid signs. You can see them hanging off of the poles for weeks around here

We have someone in our area that puts up signs every 6 mos about brand new queen matresses for sale.

I wish somebody would ticket that guy.

People put the big wooden signs up on company property by major roads. We own most the surrounding area to keep the area safe. I enjoy people putting them up, because I get to tear them down. Its fun destroying things.

The signs don't bother me so much as the blatant disregard for road safety that most people around my neighborhood seem to have (like the car door thing).

Road safety isn't the only safety issue. I know everyone uses bucket trucks nowdays but have you ever tried climbing a pole full of staple and nails the old fashioned way with climbers and a belt?

The cops in my area are pretty good about enforcing the laws against the large commercial establishments, so they hire people to stand around with signs on boards at intersections for 8 hours a day - there's one outside in the rain right now for the Borders liquidation.

Hal wrote: Road safety isn't the only safety issue. I know everyone uses bucket trucks nowdays but have you ever tried climbing a pole full of staple and nails the old fashioned way with climbers and a belt?

I did a job where I had to run cables around a pole that was cover in staples. I made the mistake of brushing against it.

I took all my Yard Sale signs down, I promise!

of course.. the lady in the original post.. think she is going to make enough money off of the yardsale to cover the tickets?

A buddy of mine worked as a zoning sign enforcement officer for a decent sized suburban township. He loved his job

My favorite was the one day he decided to drive around and fill up his truck with "1800gotjunk" signs. I begged him to call them up and ask them to remove a load of trash. And when they get there say here's the junk and point to the signs.

He didn't want them to get the signs back, so just called and told them to watch where they went or they'd get a fine...

I saw a sign for a house painting company a few weeks ago- someone had cut the phone number out of the sign, and taped a piece of posterboard to the sign underneath the name of the company that said "Got overspray all over my chimney and refused to clean it off !"

Certainly made the red light much more amusing for me if nothing else