Sacramento couple's "Slow Down" sign keeps disappearing from Boulevard Park neighborhood

A Sacramento couple placed a "Slow Down" sign in their Boulevard Park neighborhood to help curb speeding, but it keeps disappearing.

Tyler Whitmire and her husband, Billy Krimmel, attached a tracking device to the small green sign after it was stolen for the first time.

"We just call him 'the green man,' " Whitmire said, referring to the sign.  

Since then, it has been taken three more times.

"I'd say it's like a monthly occurrence," Whitmire said.

The tracker has led the couple to three different locations, including an auto glass business, a home and an apartment complex.

"No one's ever the one who took it," Krimmel said. "It's always someone's friend, and they can't tell you where the flag went."

Whitmire and Krimmel placed the sign near 23rd and E streets in Boulevard Park, where they say speeding is rampant. They've asked the city to put speed bumps or a roundabout to slow traffic.

"We've been trying for years to get the city to do something about the speeding on our street," Whitmire said. "It's just too easy to go fast."

Their concerns come as traffic safety advocates warn that deadly crashes remain a persistent issue across Sacramento.

Isaac Gonzalez, a founder of Slow Down Sacramento, said the number of people killed in vehicle crashes on city streets this year is 22, which is on pace to break last year's mark of 32.

"The problem is pervasive," Gonzalez said. 

He urges the city to take action immediately at problem spots identified by residents. 

"Just do something," Gonzalez said. "And if it's wrong, we'll do something else. But why are we waiting for people to die? Too often, that's what we do in Sacramento; we wait until somebody dies."

Whitmire and Krimmel's sign is a small effort to help keep their street safe. Now, they're battling speeding and stealing. 

"So yeah, it's a little scavenger hunt, but you know at the same time, he's got work to do," Krimmel said. 

The city has told the couple that roundabouts and speed bumps are not options they use in midtown to slow traffic anymore because of emergency vehicles. They have a traffic engineer looking at possible options.