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Stop sign thieves create dangerous situation in Williamsport

Nine stop signs have been stolen on Vine Avenue in Williamsport in the span of a month.

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Vine Avenue in Williamsport has been hit hard by stop sign thefts.

Stop signs began to go missing once students returned to Pennsylvania College of Technology for the fall semester last month.

Vine Avenue is adjacent to Penn College's campus. According to the school, nine stop signs in total have been stolen.

Penn College issued this statement to WNEP:

"If a student or students are found to be responsible for the thefts, disciplinary action also will be initiated through the Student Code of Conduct, which carries a maximum penalty of suspension or expulsion from the College."

"When I first heard it was happening, I thought it was funny, but once the numbers started creeping up like past three or four times, it started to become pretty ridiculous," said Steve Zuziak, a senior at Penn College.

Vine Avenue is not considered a part of Penn College's campus. However, a student parking lot, a few auxiliary school buildings, and off-campus student housing all sit along Vine Avenue.

"That is a student housing area, so kids are always living there, going to class, walking to and from, so it's bad," said Angel Vicente, a senior at Penn College.

Students told Newswatch 16 that cars tend to drive pretty fast down Vine Avenue. Removal of a stop sign could lead to a student or pedestrian being injured or even killed by oncoming traffic.

"Sometimes, even when the stop sign is there, people won't stop and will blast through those intersections anyway, so if you take the signs away, it seems pretty dangerous," said Zuziak.

"I cross that street, and I go on that street, and cars come flying down there, and people really don't care since it seems like that stop sign is never there. It just gets crazy on that street," said Vicente.

The college is instructing anybody with information about stop sign thefts to contact the Penn College Police as soon as possible.

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