Lipton has been removing bandit signs for 20 years and said although the county attorney has limited resources, it’s good they have volunteers willing to assist in the effort. He helps volunteers understand the “broken windows” theory as a guide for how offenders may think residents view their community if they allow it to be overrun with signs.

“This is one piece for a cure for less crime in the community,” Lipton said.

Two community members who have taken the bandit sign ranger course, Mary Joseph and Betty Sperry, are active in fighting what Joseph calls the bandit sign “infestation” in their area. Both are decades-long residents who have seen a growing number of bandit signs across the area, which Joseph said looks more rundown than it did 20 years ago.

“When people see this, what are their first impressions … when they drive into 1960?” Sperry said. She was involved with the Renaissance 1960 revitalization initiative a decade ago, which she said, “sort of fell by the wayside,” but got back into the effort when she saw a Nextdoor post from Joseph about the bandit signs.

Joseph put together a group who went through the bandit sign course. She said that from March to June, about 15 people reported they had removed 790 signs from roadways and nailed to utility posts from up and down FM 1960 and cross streets near Champions, Old Oaks, Ponderosa and Huntwick Forest.

“Most community members don’t appreciate the signs,” Joseph said. “I don’t believe they get a lot of paying customers.”

Several businesses that have placed bandit signs were contacted, but all declined to comment for this story.

Joseph and Sperry are concerned for the environment, safety of workers who have to repair the poles, and traffic risks to the community from distracted drivers. The signs may also be detrimental to longtime area businesses that Joseph said must compete with bandit signs getting in the way of their own legitimate signage. Businesses are being forced to abide by “one set of rules and having to deal with people using another,” she said.

The group is able to pull down between 300 and 400 signs per month. Even with what some may regard as significant progress for volunteers “between 40 and 50” with a few retirees Sperry said, she wishes they had more help.

“It would be great if we had stiffer rules beyond the laws,” she said.

Residents like Joseph recognize that the FM 1960 area is a “sitting duck customer for bandit sign offenders” and that law enforcement personnel have more important work to do, but she wants to assist them without being a burden.

She keeps an open communication channel with the group via Facebook and understands that more people will join in if they can go at their own pace without too many restrictions.

“Keep it simple, get the job done,” she said.

Ultimately, she wants the kinds of efforts her group undertakes to spread across the county and into other communities. “If people stop tolerating it, maybe people will stop doing,” Joseph said.

Sperry’s message for would-be bandit sign offenders is clear: “Stop nailing this trash up,” she said. “We don’t want it