A Billings resident made an unexpected discovery when she found a street sign tossed in her dumpster miles from where it belonged prompting questions about how often signs go missing in the city.Brittany Frank said she was cau ght off guard by the find."Kind of like shocked. I mean, because first of all, yeah, people usually do want street signs. So why would they dump it," Frank said.Watch Brittany and the city talk about street signs: Billings street sign found in dumpster, raising concernsHer first instinct was to report it. But by the time the city responded, the sign had vanished.The sign was located in a neighborhood just north of Grand Avenue and 24th Street West. It landed in a dumpster at an apartment complex near Rimrock Mall."By the time the city showed up a couple of days later, the sign was gone," Frank said Sunday.Frank has a theory about what happened."I think somebody took it and panicked and didn't want to get in trouble. So they ditched it in a dumpster, thinking maybe we wouldn't care," Frank said.A replacement sign has since been installed, but Frank says original has never been recovered."It's still missing. I'm not sure where it went. Because the second Facebook post, everybody wanted it," Frank said. "I'm glad that they got it back up."Frank said the sign itself wasn't the only concern."I think the biggest problem was the brackets more so than the sign," Frank said.She also noted the potential danger when more critical signs go missing."If it was a stop sign or a yield sign, that could cause all kinds of problems. Probably wrecks and stuff," Frank said.The city of Billings manages a vast inventory of signage, making it difficult to monitor every one."We have over 32,000 signs in town that we take care of and we manage," Superintendent of Street and Traffic Derick Miller said.Miller said outright theft is relatively rare."Every once in a while, we'll have some kids for whatever reason, they'll hit an area and rip down a bunch of stop signs or signs. But, those are really few and far in between," Miller said.Replacing stolen or missing signs comes at a real cost."We've been replacing some of the school crossing signs. Those are about $250 to $300 a sign," Miller said. "A smaller street name sign like Terry Avenue is gonna be a lot cheaper."Miller also had a direct message for anyone considering taking a sign."If you're stealing signs or stop signs or street name signs, just remember that something happens on your house or in your neighborhood, and that sign's gone, emergency response vehicles may not be able to find that location," Miller said. ...read more read less