Police are investigating the theft of several road signs after an inspection of several county roads in Roan Mountain revealed more than two dozen signs had been stolen in that community recently.
On Tuesday, Carter County Road Superintendent Roger Colbaugh contacted the Carter County Sheriff’s Office regarding the stolen signs and filed a formal complaint about the theft.
Colbaugh told the Elizabethton Star at total of 29 signs had been stolen from along the sides of roadways in Roan Mountain — 26 street name signs and three stop signs. In some cases, Colbaugh said the post holding a street name had been pulled out of the ground and the post, and in some cases a stop sign, was left lying on the side of the road.
The removal of the signs poses a danger, Colbaugh said.
“It could have caused a very serious accident,” he said of the stolen and misplaced stop signs.
But, creating dangerous intersections is only one way the community’s safety was impacted.
“The Rescue Squad and the fire departments and the police use the street signs to find their way to homes,” Colbaugh said.
While crews have already replaced the stolen or torn down stop signs, it may take up to 2-3 weeks for all the street names to be replaced — and that is if the weather continues to remain suitable for working. The Highway Department must first manufacture the replacement signs and then a work crew will be assigned to install the new signs, in come cases having to repair the previous post or install a new one.
Colbaugh estimated the cost to replace the missing signs would be around $4,000 once the cost of materials and labor is calculated.
The thefts were discovered by Highway Department employees who checks the county’s roads as part of their duties.
“The guys that check the roads believe this happened during the holidays. In his statement to police, Colbaugh estimated the thefts occurred between Dec. 18 and Jan. 5.
Stolen signs is not a new problem for the department, but Colbaugh said having so many happen at once is making it harder to replace the signs quickly.
“We always get one missing in the county somewhere,” he said. “This was unusual because it was so many in one area. It’s unusual to have that many all at once.”
The thefts occurred on several roads throughout the community. “It’s on several roads in Roan Mountain, even on Main Street,” Colbaugh said. “It’s spread out all around.”
The Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident and Colbaugh said he will prosecute the person or person’s responsible once they are identified. Colbaugh said a reward is being offered for any information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or person’s responsible.
“We will prosecute this because this is a dangerous situation, very dangerous,” he said.
However, if the person or persons responsible has a change of heart and decides to return the signs there may be able to avoid criminal charges if they decide to return the signs.
“If the person would bring them in and talk to me we might be able to work with them,” Colbaugh said.
Colbaugh also issued a warning to those responsible and anyone else considering stealing road signs.
“The Sheriff’s Department has filled out a report and they will be watching for this, along with the county constables,” Colbaugh said. “If they catch someone doing this, they will take them to jail.”