$10,000 to replace city road signs

If you have a street sign adorning your home or property, the Rotorua District Council wants it back.
The council has spent more than $10,000 in the past year replacing street signs that have been stolen or vandalised.
While no one sign in the city is stolen the most often, the one-lane bridge sign in Waiotapu Loop Rd is the one the council has had to replace the most, mainly because of thermal stream visitors crashing into it.
"People use the hot pools by the stream and park by the one-lane bridge, so it must be a good time to hit the signs as well," said roading engineer Elizabeth Wood.
No suburb could claim to have the signs most often vandalised or stolen but Give Way and Stop signs are the ones that vanish most often.
About 500 street signs in the district had to be replaced in the past 12 months, at a cost of $200 each.
Anyone who has any of the signs, perhaps taken in a drunken stupor, is asked to hand them back.
Returned signs can be reinstated if they're in good enough condition.
"We don't ask questions.
"We just accept the signs and use them if still in good condition or recycle them if not," Ms Wood said.
To make signs less simple for would-be thieves or vandals to take the council has introduced new measures: special sign mounts.
However, Ms Wood concedes that if someone really wants to steal a sign he or she will take it.
"Offenders often push the sign over with their vehicle, and in the rural area a four-wheel drive vehicle is used to target an entire area by running signs over."
In other parts of New Zealand popular signs to be stolen include Auckland's Bathurst Rd and Commodore Drive, while soap fans target Shortland St and Melrose Place.
Muff Rd in South Canterbury was proving such a popular sign to steal that the Timaru District Council looked at changing the name, but that was opposed by people who shared the Muff family name the road was named after.
Anyone caught vandalising or stealing a sign could be prosecuted, the maximum penalties for theft ranging from three months to seven years imprisonment, depending on the value of the property stolen.
The maximum penalty for a charge of intentional damage is three months jail or a fine not exceeding $2000.
Do you have any street signs in your home? They can be returned to the Rotorua District Council in Haupapa St or at City Focus.