Drenthe continues to be plagued by souvenir hunters who are stealing the province’s American style Hunebed Highway road signs but officials have now warned things will be made difficult for potential thieves.

The N34 was christened the Hunebed Highway in 2018 to draw attention to the province’s megalithic dolmens along the route but the sign has proved so popular that 102 have been stolen or trashed to date.

The province has forked out over €70,000 to replace them and is getting fed up with the thieves. ‘We are placing 35 new signs after the summer, council spokesman Nick Lubberman told the Telegraaf. ‘The signs will be fitted with an anti theft system which will make it harder to lift them.’

Any thefts will be now reported individually whereas before the council only reported the theft of several. However, few of the stolen signs have been recuperated. ‘Some were handed in by people to the police and one person was actually stopped carrying a sign,’ Lubberman told the paper.

Thieves can save themselves the trouble of stealing the real thing by buying a replica online, Lubberman said, and stop the council from having to replace them at €700 a pop.

The name change, an initiative of Hunebed museum’s director Hein Klompemaker, was not welcomed by all, with some considering the English language name ‘a nail in the coffin’ of Drents, a collection of Saxon dialects, which is still widely spoken in the province.