Photo by: Will Brumleve/Paxton Record
Well, that didn’t take long.
Last week, Sporting Classics Daily featured an article about a rural area’s unique attempt to thwart deer-vehicle collisions. Less than a week later, the community’s eye-catching signage has been stolen, taking with it the hope for more signs like it to appear in the future.
Button Township, an Illinois town of fewer than 300 people, had 31 reported car wrecks involving deer in 2015 — inside an area only 34 miles square. To combat the unacceptably high risk of collisions, Button Township Highway Commissioner Ron Hilligoss introduced the novel idea of “Suicidal Deer” signs to catch the public’s attention and lower the risk of accidents.
Four signs were purchased at $42 apiece, with one sign placed near a county road intersection late in 2015. The first was a test to see if vandals would shoot, steal, or otherwise damage the unusual traffic sign; if all went well, the remaining three would be placed on the other three stretches of road leading into the intersection.
The sign was the subject of widespread attention over the two or so months it was in the ground, which led to someone stealing the sign between 6 p.m. Friday evening and 9 a.m. Saturday morning.
“You tell 30 million people about it, someone’s going to steal it,” Hilligoss told the Ford County Record. He lives within a half-mile of where the sign stood and had placed it in the ground himself. “I’m just waiting to see who puts bullet holes in it or steals it,” he said earlier this month.
For now he says the remaining three will stay in storage. As this fall’s deer season approaches he will consider putting out another sign, but the odds are unlikely.