....and they didn't even ask for them back.....
Colorado officials replace ‘420’ road sign with ‘419.99’ to deter thefts
The number is code word for weed in smoker slang. In notoriously pot-friendly Colorado, officials have dealt for years with people stealing the 420 sign from Interstate 70 near the Kansas border.
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By Sasha Goldstein / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, January 10, 2014, 8:53 PM
This sign on Interstate 70 is now replaced with a sign reading ‘Mile 419.99’ to deter thieves who use ‘420’ as a code for marijuana or getting high. People have long swiped the ‘420’ signs to use as decorations - or something.
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Colorado transportation officials have found a way to foil thieving potheads.
There’s no longer a “420” mile marker along Interstate 70 in the state. Instead, it’s mile marker “419.99.”
The three digit number is often used as a code word for pot or getting high, leading giggling weed smokers to steal the signs.
It happened so often, state DOT spokeswoman Amy Ford told the Daily News, that they swapped the sign in Stratton, near the Kansas border, “sometime within the last year.”
“It’s an approach we’re trying,” she said Friday. “We’re trying to keep these signs up because they convey good traveler info.”
The signs had been stolen for years, she said, long before the state famously legalized recreational marijuana for adults.
Ford did not know the exact number of times the sign had been stolen but she said it costs “a few hundred dollars” plus time and labor to replace each placard. But she said the money isn’t the main issue with the thefts.
“It’s really about not having any gap in the signs because mile markers are important for people when there’s an accident,” she said. “We want to keep the information available.”
The DOT came up with a similar solution on the roadway near Cameron Pass, where the agency changed the “69” mile markers with the less funny “68.5” sign.
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