Construction signs are one of those things that people think are cool to steal. That is, until they find out it’s illegal to possess them.

Imagine college students in your building were stealing such signs, and the college gave them a chance to anonymously return them before anyone got fined. How many do you think would be returned? A few or a room full?

In the following story, a Resident Assistant witnesses this exact scenario and is surprised by the amount. Here’s his story.

The residents at my college had a penchant for stealing signs… but I didn’t realize how much.

I worked as an RA (Resident Assistant) in my residence for a few years back in college. I have many fond memories of those times, but I was just reminded of one when I got stuck in traffic on my way to work.

Like most colleges, we had our fair share of petty thefts of things like signs, traffic cones, and anything that would catch a drunk college kid’s eye.

I knew my roommates occasionally took part in it, so once I started officially working there, I told them to make sure I didn’t find out about anything since I didn’t want to go full cop on them.

They kept it to a minimum, I rarely saw anything of note, and we were all happy.

The building manager chose his battles wisely.

Right up until the city started doing mass construction nearby.

Suddenly, traffic cones started appearing all over the building, signs were popping up at every corner, and construction worker-orange seemed to be in every common area.

The manager of the building finally had a meeting with the RAs and told us it was getting out of hand. He was fine with the occasional sign appearing and the resident getting a warning because let’s face it, keeping college kids in line is like herding cats, and he picked his battles.

He told us to spread the word that this was all illegal and that anyone found in possession of these items could receive a hefty fine if anyone found out.

He was told to go tell the residents of the manager’s generous offer.

Rather than doing a door-to-door witch hunt, he said that starting the following Monday, anyone who had any of these items could drop them off at the office, no questions asked, and he would take care of it.

We made the rounds, told everyone the news and happily went about our weekend.

I had a fun moment with my roommates standing in their bedroom sharing the info and pointedly ignoring the Orange sign five feet to my right.

The following Monday, I had to drop by the front office to check something on our schedule and was met with quite the site.

There were so many signs that the secretary’s desk was nearly blocked.

Heavy metal signs were stacked to one side so deep the secretary could barely make it to her desk, small traffic cones were stacked on every surface, and large pylons were placed creating walkways for visitors.

Apparently the residents were all too happy to get rid of their ill gotten goods once they realized there was a possible fine (I’m not sure how they didn’t realize this before hand) but the manager had underestimated the number of participants.

I found out later that the manager spent the rest of the day making trips back and forth as well as having a long discussion with one of the construction guys who I’m told wound up laughing at the whole situation in the end.

Wow! It’s amazing that’s all it took.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a carpenter who was shocked to find the police waiting for him after his last day of work.

Let’s check out what the fine folks over at Reddit think about the stolen signs.

The story makes this reader happy.

According to this comment, the students may have maliciously complied.

Here’s someone who helped steal a sign one time.

That was an impressive turnout! Luckily, it seems many of the students did the right thing.