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Mysterious graffiti appears on highway signs in Milwaukee

The county was removing the stickers Wednesday
Posted at 12:13 PM, Apr 19, 2017
and last updated 2017-04-19 19:30:43-04

The Milwaukee County Highway Department spent Wednesday peeling off stickers from highway signs on I-94.

The two stickers were on the half mile marker for the Holt Avenue exit and on the Miller Park Way exit.

"We don't know a whole lot about when they were placed or intent," said Melissa Baldauff, Communications Director for County Executive Chris Abele.

While the county is left wondering who did this, the danger of such an act is hard to avoid. As cars and semis rush down I-94, a small misstep could have spelled the end for whomever is responsible.

"Late at night, it's pretty dangerous," said Matthew Huelse. "You got a 60 to 70 foot climb [up the scaffolding] and a 50 to 60 foot climb over on top of the highway. That's dangerous."

Huelse lives a stone's throw from the cement block holding up the Holt Avenue sign. While not easy, it's definitely not impossible to scale.

"Whoever did it has got some guts," Huelse said.

Guts, maybe. A blatant disrespect, most definitely, after the culprit likely walked through the veterans section of Spring Hill Cemetery to scale the sign near Miller Park.

"It's definitely not easy to get into some of these situations," Baldauff said. "But it's definitely dangerous."

Baldauff says they're concerned with finding who did this, but are stressing the dangers in doing this so no one else tries to copy this act.

"We have workers out there," Baldauff said. "These are people specially trained to know how to get up on the signs, be up there safely and work on them safely. They're very specialized and trained workers so for any random person to be getting up there is a pretty significant safety hazard on its own. Plus, the fact you're over the highway."

Baldauff says they may look into other safety precautions or security to ensure people can't climb these structures but are more focused on getting the stickers down and making sure no one else tries to do this again.

Calls to the Milwaukee County Sheriff went unreturned but Baldauff says they're working together to find who did it.

The sticker appears to be a gun sticker with script writing and the number "6" on the handle. The County Executive Office did not speculate what they could mean. They don't have a description or suspect but believe this is a one time deal.

"For everything we know, this is an isolated incident," Baldauff said. We hope this is an isolated incident because there is a lot of potential for danger for the individual or individuals who placed stickers and also the people who are driving on the roads."

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Milwaukee County Sheriff at 414-226-7000. 

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