If you found it on the side of the road, I'd say you're doing the world a favor by picking it up. Don't see a problem in keeping them.

Unfortunately it is city property, so yes it is illegal to take, and you can get in trouble for having a sign that you just picked up. Damaged or not. However nobody is going to raid your house for a street sign. Best to just leave them alone.

Edit: If you like to collect signs, I'm sure you can find new ones online!

True but im wanting to maybe start trying to gather some myself. Like get different ones. The only ones i have currently are 2 stop signs, a yield sign, 2 one way signs, and a railroad crossing. I would like to maybe get one of those signs that say the height of a bridge thats orange.

Inton wrote Unfortunately it is city property, so yes it is illegal to take, and you can get in trouble for having a sign that you just picked up. However nobody is going to raid your house for a street sign. I wouldn't recommend picking up random signs. Best to just leave them alone.

Edit: If you like to collect signs, I'm sure you can find new ones online!

Yeah the only issue is im not trying to waste momey on buying generic road signs. Id only spend money on the ones not from the US or maybe cool ones in NYC or CALI.

I can't say I'm an expert in this sort of thing but it is a very fine line. It is city property which is illegal to take without permission, however if it's knocked down in a ditch an not serving a use, I'm pretty sure it constitutes as "garbage" at which point you'd be considered a helpful citizen cleaning up garbage. If it's blocking the flow of water in a ditch then I'm pretty sure you can move it, however I think the correct protocol that you're supposed to go by is take it out of the ditch if it's blocking the flow of water and put it where the post should be and notify the city that a road sign has fallen down.

I'm not sure how the city works, but I know some construction crews have to take inventory of all their signs and cones so once they do that and find one damaged and report it not road worthy or how ever they do that, they throw them away. You could go buy the cities construction management and ask if they have any damaged road signs you can have.

Illegal because it's not your property. It belongs to your town.

The law whether it makes sense or not its illegal I don't understand it myself but I guess you cannot truly tell if it was stolen or found I would either not let police in your house or get rid of them.

That's like saying I left my dog outside, so anyone can take it. It's the city's property, its illegal.

If it's just laying there, I don't think you could get into much trouble if you were to take it. Obviously tearing them down is a different story.