I changed a road sign to make my commute easier thirteen years ago, and somehow nobody ever noticed.

On my daily commute there was this incredibly inconvenient “no right turn between 7am and 9:30am” sign. The problem was that I needed to make that right turn around 7:20 every single morning. For a long time, I just broke the rule. Sometimes I’d take the turn anyway and hope no one was watching. Other times I’d loop around if there were too many cars or eyes on me.

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Eventually, out of boredom more than anything, I looked up how much the ticket actually was for making that illegal turn. That’s when I realized something ridiculous. The fine was more expensive than buying an official replacement road sign from the same supplier that makes signs for our area and a bunch of nearby regions.

So I bought one.

I ordered a brand new sign that said “no right turn between 7:30am and 9:30am.” I used an alias. I had it shipped to a location nowhere near my home. I treated the whole thing like some low-stakes spy mission. Cloak and dagger for absolutely no good reason, but honestly, that was half the fun.

One night, I went out there, removed two bolts, and swapped the signs.

At first, I fully expected it to get taken down. I assumed someone would notice, question it, or fix it within days or weeks. But nothing happened. Days turned into months. Months turned into years.

It’s been over a decade now, and the sign is still there.

And yes, I did consider just taking the sign down completely. But I figured that would actually raise more suspicion. Plus, if I’m being honest, the whole ridiculous plan of sourcing an official sign and doing the swap felt oddly satisfying in a way simply removing it wouldn’t have.

Thirteen years later, my commute is still easier, and apparently no one has ever questioned why that sign quietly changed.

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