Transcript for: Richard Ancrum and Guerrilla Public Service
In any downtown area,
you're likely to find evidence of street artists making their mark. Some call it vandalism,
some find it beautiful, but how often can you call it useful? In 2001, a local LA artist,
after two years of planning and prep, snuck onto a large
overhead signage structure over a busy freeway in broad daylight and added his art to the sign. This one act of vandalism
was so subtle, so detailed, and so useful. It stayed in place for eight years. Let me tell you the story
about the man who did what Caltrans couldn't. The gorilla public servant Richard Anum. Now you've all heard stories
about how bad LA traffic is. At least you've heard
Californians complain about how bad LA traffic is, and while that's partly
caused by overcrowding a lack of public transport and Angelinos not knowing
how to drive, a lot of it comes from when those freeways were originally constructed. California's interstates were built and maintained by the
California Department of Transportation or Caltrans, and one 10 was one of
their first projects. Actually, it's in
California, so the one 10. The one 10 was first opened in 1940 as the Arroyo Seco Parkway. It wound from Pasadena
to San Pedro cutting through the heart of downtown LA. At the time, it was hailed
as a shining example of a modern freeway. But fast forward about 60 years
and the story changes a bit. Caltrans realized freeways
needed certain things like shoulders. For example, the Arroyo Seco
Parkway was designed to be, well, a parkway. It was built for 40 mile an
hour road speeds, which is what most vehicles were doing at the time. It had near 90 degree off ramps and microscopic on ramps with
stop signs in certain areas. And because it was built right
along the Arroyo Secco River, it couldn't be widened as the city grew. Luckily, the one 10 is not
the only way into Los Angeles, the five, the 1 0 1, the 10 all funnel commuters
into the downtown area. But because the one 10 was there, first it sits in the prime spot. This means it had to have on-ramps and off-ramps for each of these freeways added
throughout the years in the space of about four miles. I think the worst thing about
this is that there's no way to un the downtown merges. This is just set in stone. Nowadays, freeway signage
is almost superfluous. GPS apps built-in navigation, and the trust we put in strangers
from Uber have made them little more than a relic of the past. But in the Y 2K era,
people relied on road signs and needed them to be accurate. So you can imagine how frustrated you'd be
if you were road tripping to Six Flags, four kids in the
back of your Ford Expedition. Pokemon soundtrack blaring,
driving down the one 10 looking for which lane needed to be
in to get on the I five North and the sign just wasn't there. The overhead sign or gantry at Mile Marker
2 31 had lanes marked for the 1 0 1, the five South,
and staying on the one 10, but it made no mention of the tiny two lane
exit on the far left side that would put you onto
California's largest freeway in less than two miles. Here we are in the tunnels of the one 10 just north of downtown. We are about to come up
to the five North exits. It is a very, very tight left-hand exit that just comes up very
abruptly at the end of this tunnel right here. And if you are not prepared
for it, there it goes. Missed it Every day. People were missing their exit or worse, cutting across
faster lanes of traffic to make it at the very last minute. It's unclear if anyone
was actually complaining to Caltrans about this and being ignored, or if it was just one of those, you know, everyday annoyances that people
felt they had to live with. But one man wasn't gonna
let it stand any longer. He became the hero we needed and took matters into his own hands. Richard Ancrum is a contemporary artist and sign painter who was living south of Los Angeles in Orange
County back in 2001 after falling prey to the
freeway signs misleading layout. One morning he began to notice just how many people did as well. Luckily, Ancrum had the
skills, the stubbornness, and the free time to
do something about it. At first, it was just a funny little idea that he talked about with
friends getting up on that gantry and fixing the sign. But eventually, Ancrum went
into full planning mode, and that plan wasn't just to
get up there with a few cans of spray paint and graffiti on a fix. Ancrum was a sign maker
by trade, so the level of detail he went into
was unlike anything else. Ancrum visited other overpasses
with a measuring tape to get accurate sizing. He took color swatches
to other signs in order to match the Caltran standard perfectly. As a skilled sign painter, Ancrum even hand painted the
exact Caltran standard font onto his masterpiece. He even sourced reflectors
from the same distributor that Caltrans used. After three months of
work, Ingram had a sign that matched the existing
gantry signs perfectly, and he even added some patina to help match the surrounding paints. But now came the tricky part, actually getting the sign up
there, just like the making of the sign, Ancrum was
meticulous in his approach to actually installing it. He got a high of his vest and
a hard hat from a DIY store and even put a fake contracting
business logo on the side of his truck just to make
sure no one was suspicious. And honestly, why would they be? Everything he did seemed
to be the protocol as far as freeway goers were concerned. Ingram used the guardrails on the gantry and even had a guide to
properly align the signs to perfect spec. It all looked pretty legit. And in case I didn't mention
the reason why we know the process looked so
convincing is that Ancrum and his team filmed the whole thing. They not only documented the
process of making the sign, but they had cameras stationed all around it while it was being installed. Ancrum eventually
released all this footage as a 10 minute documentary,
and it is worth a watch. It's a little scary, and
I don't really know why, but if you like your
documentaries with a little bit of a David Lynch vibe,
you should check it out. - I have taken it upon
myself to manufacture and install these missing guide signs. - And if you're thinking,
why would someone put all that effort into something so trivial? Didn't this guy have bigger
things to worry about? Not really. This was the peak
of post Cold War, pre nine 11. America arguably the most
stable period in US history - World as it was at the
End of the 20th century. And it was also a time when
Americans were a lot less concerned with security. The installed sign was so
convincing that for eight months, no one even knew there was
anything different about it. Drivers saw it as a much needed,
much welcomed improvement, and Caltrans didn't seem
to be reacting at all. Ancrum had completely gotten away with it. On one side, that's the mark
of a perfectly executed plan, but like any mastermind, Ancrum wanted to get caught just a little bit. In 2002, Anri leaked the
story to a local newspaper, and once they broke the
story, the media circus began. - So was it your idea to to create and deploy a sign of your own? - Yes.
And you told your mom about this. What'd she think? - She thought I was out of my mind. - Of course, reporters wanted to hear from Anker about
his motives and mindset, but they also wanted to
hear from Caltrans about how they felt about a
private citizen doing their job. For them, - We feel he had a good idea, and in fact, we're
planning to institute it. Mr. Rom's activity was very well executed, very well thought out. However, there is a
safety issue concerned, and it's very important that such work be done under the guidance or by our maintenance forces. - Eventually, Caltrans did
replace the original sign with the new one that
you can see behind me. But do you know how long
it took them? Eight years. Now, whether that's because
Ingram's work was just that good, or Caltrans is just that inefficient, I
guess we'll never know. But as you can see, they did
keep Ingram's edition in pretty much the exact same spot. Ancrum didn't leave it at that though. His mini documentary
Gorilla Public Service went to over a dozen film festivals
over the next four years, and according to him, there are other similarly
helpful works of his out there that he's kept quiet. The statute of limitations
is a real thing. Listen, we've all looked
at our surroundings and seen things that need fixing, but rarely do any of us
actually do anything about them. Now, I'm not saying you
should climb up onto your nearest street sign. In fact, I'm saying you shouldn't do that because it's illegal. But it is certainly worth acknowledging and appreciating the work of a vigilante roadwork
specialist like Richard Rum. That's it for me this
time. Thanks for watching. I'll see you in two weeks.
Let's go before we get a ticket.