Southport has lost numerous street signs to sticky fingers.

“We always lose some year-round,” said Dennis Andrews of the Southport public works department. “This winter has been odd, they have been disappearing more rapidly than normal. We lost four or five recently. A rash of stolen ones for some crazy reason. Maybe the kids are bored.”

Often the same signs go missing over and over, such as the street sign on Dogfish Head Road or Cozy Harbor signs.

“The sign for All Saints has gone missing a couple times, along with Christmas Cove,” Andrews said. “We even lost the stop sign on Joppa Road. Who steals a stop sign?”

While some theft is expected, Andrews describes the situation as “getting out of hand.”

Every time a sign is stolen, the town is required to replace it at a cost of between $30 and $40. That is only the cost of the actual sign, and doesn't include man hours. According to Andrews, certain signs are stolen so often that the town has taken to ordering multiples so they have replacements on hand.

When asked if the town had considered any measures to cut down on theft, Andrews laughed.

“We've thought of lots of ideas, but none practical. Greasing them maybe. It's not like we can hook them up to electricity.”

Mike Alley, public works foreman for Boothbay, has also been dealing with stolen street signs this winter. In Boothbay, the numbers are normal.

“It's nothing out of the ordinary in Boothbay,” Alley said. “We go around maybe one day a month to replace the signs that have gone missing.”

Boothbay Harbor Town Manager Tom Woodin also said thefts were normal this year.

“We lose a few every year, but this winter has been normal,” Woodin said. “I haven’t heard Jody (Lewis, Public Works Director) complain about any more going missing than usual.”

Alley said that it is important to replace signs so ambulances and the fire department can find the roads in an emergency.

Boothbay has its own machine to create street signs, which does keep its costs down. When Alley was asked if any of the other towns had approached Boothbay about using the machine, he said no, but that he was “open to suggestions for sharing.”