Saugus street signs stuffed into catch basin

SAUGUS – A driver for McGarvey Towing made an odd discovery Wednesday morning when he noticed poles sticking out of a catch basin and at least one missing manhole cover.Department of Public Works Superintendent Joseph Attubato said his on-call emergency man was woken up when police called him into work around 2:30 a.m.”A good half a dozen or more of the red (street) signs had been torn down and stuffed into catch basins,” he said. “What kind of person does this? Their I.Q. must be about 10.”Attubato was clearly livid as he listed off the street signs found protruding from five separate catch basins. The signs included Central, Saville, Innis and Elm streets, along with Lenox Avenue and a few others.The signs, he said were pulled completely out of the ground.”Those go nearly 3 feet down,” he said. “That’s not easy to do.”Police Lt. Mike Annese said police officer Andrew Coule responded to the call and not only found the signs, but also noticed that several manhole covers had been removed.Attubato said workers removed the signs, some of which could be salvaged, but others will have to be replaced completely.It will cost over $100 each for the signs that need replacing. Attubato said that would include the sign as well as the poles and hardware, but not labor.”If a car had hit those stubs someone could have been seriously hurt,” he said. “They must be some kind of sick, low intelligence person to do this.”