When is a stop sign not a stop sign?

When it's on E John St. in Seattle. 

Something interesting is happening in a neighborhood on Capitol Hill where somebody has decided that some intersections without stop signs, need them. 

According to seattletimes.com,
‘The stop signs on 14th Avenue East and East John Street in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood didn’t look right to Dante Morelli.
The poles weren’t square, but U-shaped like the ones someone might buy at Home Depot. The signs weren’t reflective either, and Morelli said he couldn’t find any documentation of the stop signs on the Seattle Department of Transportation website.’ 

Someone had apparently decided that their children were unsafe on the streets and decided to place stop signs at certain intersections in their Capitol Hill neighborhood. 

Whoever did this did not have the permission of the Seattle Department of Transportation and although the placing of these stop signs is illegal, The Seattle Department of Transportation says that they will take the hint and do research on the safety of those intersections.  

Imagine the amount of frustration that must have been there for parents to cause them to do this, to go by the materials, actually put the stop signs in, probably knowing that The Seattle Department of Transportation would not be pleased, but they did it anyway because the safety of their children is more important than getting a Court summons. 

As I said before, the upside is that the Seattle Department of Transportation is taking this incident as a wakeup call to reevaluate all of these intersections without stop signs. 

So, whoever put up the fake stop signs,
congratulations, you made your point.
‘Vigilante’ stop signs on Seattle’s Capitol Hill attract city’s attention | The Seattle Times
Am I crazy or did someone install stop signs at every intersection on John st from Broadway to 15th? : r/Seattle