File photo of welcome sign in Greenwich (Karen Tensa)

A thief or thieves went to some trouble to steal a “Welcome to Connecticut” sign that greets motorists at the Rhode Island border, officials said.

The sign was secured with four locking bolts to 8-foot high posts on Route 165 in Voluntown, welcoming drives from Exeter, R.I. It was discovered missing last week, state Department of Transportation spokesperson Kafi Rouse said Thursday.

The 24- by 66-inch sign that also bore Gov. Ned Lamont’s name “is at an odd location at the end of a bridge over Beach Pond,” Voluntown First Selectman Tracey Hanson said in an email, “so it would be challenging to steal!”

A crew was scheduled to replace the missing sign this week, Rouse said. Unfortunately, she said, “we see this throughout the year.”

People take all kinds of road signs, and DOT said it files a report and replaces them. With materials and labor, replacing the Welcome to Connecticut sign will cost about $300, Rouse said.

News reports show that road sign thievery is a persistent, nationwide problem.

Officials in Cumberland County, N.C., this week asked the public for help after 80 street signs were ripped out of 40 intersections throughout the county. Officials said replacing the signs has cost the county a total of $20,000.

In Boone County, Ark., the road department has had to replace more than 20 signs this year. Crews have replaced signs in some locations as many as five times.

Some sign thieves have a preference. In Michigan, yellow and black diamond-shaped markers showing a horse and buggy, warning motorists they have to share the road with Amish travelers, have been a hot item to steal.

Public officials across the country warn that taking road signs endangers motorists, pedestrians and road workers.