It happened at a three-way intersection in southeast Houston at Rosa Allen and Oriole. Vandals ripped out three stop signs.
They also took another from the nearby corner of Choate and Oak Meadow.
Neighbors leaving Monday morning immediately noticed the lack of red color and orderly traffic flow. We even caught drivers unsure of whether to stop.
Sometime over the weekend, the stop signs were snapped off near the ground. Two were missing.
Someone in the neighborhood took it upon themselves to tape a stop sign to a guard post. It, too, had been ripped from the ground at the intersection of Rosa Allen and Oriole.
It can be a busy junction because a METRO stop is across the street from one of the missing stop signs, and neighbors say vehicles already speed on their street.
"Trucks come very fast," local resident Maera Gonzalez said in Spanish.
Gonzalez said the stump in her yard is from an out-of-control pickup that took her tree out a couple of years ago. Without the stop signs, she said, more accidents were likely.
"Many people pass very quickly. Even with the stop signs, there are accidents. So yes, if they don't put them there, they will see more," she said, via translation.
After ABC13 called the City of Houston Public Works Department about the missing signs Monday, a city truck was on the scene installing fresh signs at the corners of Rosa Allen and Oriole.
Neighbors said the signs will help others not used to stopping at the intersection by memory.
"That's it. People haven't really been stopping here. We stop here all the time because we know there is a four-way stop," Rosavelt Garcia said.
The public works employee was able to replace the signs within about an hour, and at last check, the intersection was back to normal.
