TGIS: Thank God It's Schadenfreude! (279)

This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of The Telegraph (from Thursday, July 22; link good at time of posting):

A village sign has been stolen so many times that residents have clubbed together to buy a stone version cemented in to the ground.

Households in Shitterton, near Bere Regis, Dorset contributed £20 each to the new sign after repeatedly falling victim to pranksters.

....

Ian Ventham, 62, a retired RNLI director, who arranged the whip-round, said: "It was my wife's idea to carve it out of stone. We have lived here for the last 20 years and during that time the sign has been nicked at least three times.

"We think it was kids who would like to have it stuck on the wall in a den somewhere because its quite an interesting sign.

....

"We thought let's put in a ton and a half of stone and see them try and take that away in the back of a Ford Fiesta."

....

He said: "I suppose this is quite a good example of what David Cameron means when he talks about the Big Society empowering communities.

"I am not sure if he is expressly thinking about Shitterton signposts, but I think he is talking about people getting off their backsides and doing things, rather than expecting them to be done for you."

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