The City of Hollywood began a new attempt to eradicate the small, illegal, streetside signs that advertise services like buying gold or junk cars, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported.
The city purchased a $300 system that automatically calls numbers from a phone list and leaves the receivers with phone messages, the newspaper said.
The message tells the business that their sign placement is illegal and that they must go to City Hall in order for the calls to stop.
The robocalling technique places up to 20 calls a day to each number from the signs the city has collected.
"It occurred to me that they want us to call," Hollywood Mayor Peter Bober was quoted as saying. "So, we're going to call, and keep calling, until their heads are spinning."
Bober also held a contest in 2010 for the person who could collect the most signs in a two-month period, the Sentinel reported.
Pembroke Pines also deals with the signs and takes down as many as 200 a week.
"I think Mayor Bober's got a great idea," Pembroke Pines Mayor Frank Ortis was quoted as saying. "Just load up their phones with messages and maybe they'll get the message."
In Pembroke Pines the signs are considered litter, and posting them can result in a court appearance.
"We spend way too many man hours and resources removing these signs," John Earle, a code compliance administrator, told the paper. "It's an ongoing problem for us."
