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Paintballers Rack Up $2400 in Damage to Roadside Signs: Info Sought

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Paintballers Rack Up $2400 in Damage to Roadside Signs: Info Sought

ST. MARY'S COUNTY - 10/22/2009

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During the period of Friday, October 9 and Tuesday, October 13, 20 roadside signs were damaged as a result of unknown suspect(s) using a paintball gun and shooting 20 signs. 

The signs were located along Maddox Road at both Budds Creek Road in Chaptico and at Coltons Point Road in Clements.  The estimated cost to replace the signs is $2,400.

If there is anyone with information which could lead to the arrest is asked to call the TIPS line at 301-475-2936 and your name and information will remain anonymous.  The investigation continues.


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gmdt Not Logged In 10/22/2009 at 3:32 PM
Hmmm
I'm just curious at why there is damage done from Paint Filled Paint Balls. I worked at a Paintball Field for 5 years back in the 90's. I have never seen authorized paintballs sold that did permanent damage to anything that was shot at purposely, or even mistakenly. This included cars that were in the parking lot. Was something other then Paintballs used? Were the guns and car speed a factor? What kind of signs were damaged (IE: stop signs, street signs.)? How much were they shot up? Was it one time or repeated times over a long period? All of this would be interesting to know before $2,400.00 of tax payers money is used for repairs.
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NotBornHere Not Logged In 10/22/2009 at 4:27 PM
Reply to gmdt: Good point, except ...
... nothing in the article says who owns the signs.

Maybe they weren't state/county signs at all. If they were those darn real estate signs, I say lock-n-load.

You are right about paint balls being harmless. Even at 300 FPS they can't damage anything like a metal state road sign. They must have been those paper/foam pieces of real estate crap.
aFTeRLiFe Not Logged In 10/22/2009 at 4:27 PM
Reply to gmdt: Hard to believe...
I find that hard to believe gmdt, stop signs are supposed to be red and if they sprayed STOP with green or some other color then it is damaged. I also find it hard to believe that it doesn't do anything to a vehicle. Those things are tough far range or close, so it really would hurt it.
gmdt Not Logged In 10/23/2009 at 8:22 AM
Reply to aFTeRLiFe
Your right about if the Stop Sign is covered in green paint, however you would have to spray it with 30-100 paintballs without moving to cover it to the point of not being usable anymore. And then all it would take is a hard rain to clean off. Thus the reason I find it hard to believe that if they were just being shot at and not drive by shootings that the signs are in need of replacing. To give an example of your theory behind damage a vehicle. The field that I worked at one year did a setup of a speed ball court at a local fair. It was along side a parking lot. We put netting up and asked people not to park along one side so as not to get paint on their cars or trucks. Most headed our advice. Some didn't. We had a couple kids that were new to the sport. They shot through a hole in the netting that we later fixed. It hit three cars at 290fps. We paid for car washes of those cars. There was no damage to the 20 or 30 paint balls that were shot at those cars. It was at a close range as well. It washes right off. The only way that I could see a problem is if the paint was left on the cars for a month or two. By this point it would have washed off. Now I have seen a problem when you add speed of a passing car to the mix. As in the person is shooting from a vehicle moving at 30mph or more. Which doesn't do anymore damage then a small rock chip. So once again, unless someone was using marbles or ball bearings in the paintball guns, which I don't recommend anyone doing. I don't see how there is that much damage done to these 20 signs. There has to be more to this story then what is posted.

And as a note; to this day the field owner where I worked has got a cash reward leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone that uses the sport to do anything then what it is meant for. That is fun, and team play.
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