Official: Give streets 'boring names'

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DARIEN, Ga., Sept. 27 (UPI) -- An official in a Georgia county says the solution to a rash of sign thefts is to switch to "boring" street names.

McIntosh County Commissioner Mark Douglas said the solution to repeated thefts of signs marking Green Acres, Boone's Farm, Mary Jane Lane and Harmony Hill is to make the name of the streets less interesting, Morris News Service reported Monday.

"Boring names," Douglas said. "That might be about the only thing we can do. We're actually losing a lot of our good taxpayers' money to folks who get their kicks stealing signs."

County Manager Luther Smart said the county loses about $17,000 a year due to sign thefts.

"We're losing something like 550 signs a year to theft," he said. "The most popular ones, we've replaced five to 10 times. They steal them as fast as we can make them and put them back up."

Smart said sign thieves can face stiff penalties.

"They don't understand the liability issue," he said. "If they cause an ambulance or fire truck not to be able to find a location in distress, they could be charged with a felony, and they will also be responsible for any monetary damages incurred as a result."