And our winner is....

Beware bovines from above.  We never knew it was so dangerous out in the New Age mecca of Taos, New Mexico until reader Nicole Ridlen submitted an unusual road sign warning drivers to watch out for falling rocks and cows.  Now she’ll receive a $500 gift certificate as the winner in TheDetroitBureau.com’s 1st annual Wild, Weird and Wacky Street Signs Contest.

We’ve been amazed at some of the entries that have landed in our e-mailbox…the flood of wacky entries prompting us to leave things open as long as possible.  But, alas, we had to eventually bring this good thing to an end and now, it’s time to announce all of the winners.

It could been a contender. But the rules said the images had to be originals.

We asked readers to weigh in on a selection of 14 finalists chosen from the 100s of images we’ve received.  And, wow, did readers let us know what they liked – since Labor Day the finalists collectively tallied over 100,000 votes. Unfortunately, the two top picks have been disqualified.  It appears they plucked their images off the web in violation of the rules which require that all entries be original and that entrants had full rights to use them.  That knocked out “Stop – No Turns,” which would’ve garnered the top prize, as well as “No Hooking,” which came in a very close second.  Both entrants have agreed to withdraw from the contest.

Ignorance of the law...will win you 2nd place.

Too bad, that First Place prize is a $500 Bridgestone Tire gift certificate, something we know every motorist can eventually use.  So, congratulations to Ms. Ridlen for her udderly ridiculous image.

And to our new 2^nd Place winner, who goes by the handle “MGCarNut.”  He’ll be receiving a new digital camera for his entry, “City Parking Confusion.”  He may need it to try to defend himself against a ticket if he ever tries to park there again.

Thanks for the heads-up...our 3rd Place winner.

Third Place – and a new portable navigation system with real-time traffic – goes to J. Scnatzen for “Sidewalk Ends.”  Perhaps the biggest surprise was receiving three similar images during the course of the contest.  We’re awarding the prize to the first of those entries.

Close behind were “Water with H2O,” and “No doctor, no hospital, one cemetery,” as well as “Eat Here, Get Gas.”  They’ll receive some lovely consolation prizes, including this year’s collectible posters from the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

Thanks to all those who’ve snapped some truly Wild, Weird and Wacky Street Signs and keep looking for more as we’ll likely be back with this contest again next year.  In the meantime, keep an eye out for more contests from TheDetroitBureau.com and its sponsors, including Bridgestone, Nissan and MSNBC.com and NBC.com.

To check out the final vote tally and all 14 finalists, Click Here.