While local residents have generally been spending more time at home, others have apparently taken to stealing and vandalizing signs.

In recent weeks, around 16 Park County road signs have been stolen or knocked down around Powell and Clark, two Bureau of Land Management signs were pilfered from a North Fork trailhead (before being found about 25 miles away on Tuesday) and signs for the Willwood Public Access Area south of Powell have again been vandalized.

“We definitely have seen an uptick in thefts and vandalism since the first of March coinciding with the timing of the COVID epidemic,” said Park County Engineer Brian Edwards.

Not only have the thefts and property destruction caused thousands of dollars of losses to government agencies, in the case of the county’s signs, some of the crimes could put drivers at risk.

“We’re not fun haters, but it’s causing some serious hazards,” said Park County Public Works Project Manager Ben McDonald. “So it’d be nice for the general public to kind of keep their eyes open and report suspicious stuff.”

Six signs have been stolen in the Willwood area south of Powell and on Lanes 5 and 6 north of town, with another four riddled with bullet holes. Meanwhile, out in Clark, about a half-dozen signs have been stolen or run over, with people “kind of going out of their way to knock them down,” McDonald said.

Some of the stolen that were shot up in the Willwood area — with some large caliber rounds — are right in front of homes, he added.

“People are just kind of opening up … and there’s the potential for incidents when that kind of stuff is taking place,” he said.

The absence of the signs could prove dangerous, too. Signs stolen on the Willwood marked a section of the road that was significantly damaged over the winter. County crews will begin patching the road soon, McDonald said, but in the meantime, ”if those signs are gone and somebody hits that going full speed, it could be bad.”

One Wyoming Department of Transportation-owned stop sign was run over at the intersection of Lane 5 and a state highway north of Powell. Park County stepped in to provide a temporary replacement — concerned about drivers entering the highway without stopping — but the county’s sign was stolen before WYDOT installed a permanent replacement, McDonald said.

In total, the county is out of as much as $800 worth of materials — plus burning through staff time.

“Our sign budget shrinks every year and we don’t like to have to replace the signs that we already have,” McDonald said.

Also south of Powell, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department will need to replace vandalized signs at the Willwood Public Access Area for the third time in the last four years.

“After installation, we estimate the signs to cost $800,” said Tara Hodges, Cody Region information and education specialist.

The Game and Fish maintains five wildlife habitat management areas and 48 public access areas that provide important access opportunities. Vandalism and illegal dumping have become increasingly expensive and time consuming problems at the areas, Hodges said.

“Vandalism such as this is far too commonplace at public access areas,” she said. “It is costly and time consuming to replace or repair these items and ultimately, it is sportsmen who are footing the bill for this senseless vandalism.”

Additionally, sometime between Friday, April 3 and Sunday, April 5, two Bureau of Land Management signs went missing from the Four Bear Trailhead, in the area of 3305 North Fork Highway.

“The theft of these signs is disappointing, not only from a monetary standpoint, but especially because several local volunteers gave their time and effort to install the signs during our National Trails Day event in 2018,” Sarah Beckwith, a regional spokesperson for the BLM, had said last week.

On Tuesday, however, the BLM recovered the signs on Sunset Rim, east of Cody off the Greybull Highway.

With the signs worth more than $1,000, the theft qualified as a felony and the Park County Sheriff’s Office has been jointly investigating the case with BLM law enforcement.

“With evidence also having been recovered from the scene of the located signs, this joint investigation is still ongoing,” the sheriff’s office said Tuesday.

Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 307-754-8700.

Park County Public Works has requested additional patrols from the sheriff’s office and taken other measures to combat the thefts — and it’s asking landowners to be on the lookout for suspicious activity and for parents to keep an eye out for any new signs in their children’s bedrooms.

“I know the sheriff’s department has a lot more important things to do than chase down sign vandals all the time,” McDonald said.