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Old Town Road is a real place and its residents are upset that people keep tearing down the street signs to prove it

Old Town Road is a real place. You could probably take a horse there, if you wanted to — except that these days, it might be a little harder to find.A quiet residential street in Wellesley, Massachusetts , was called Old Town Road long before the country-trap song by Lil Nas X became a sensation. “Old Town Road” is not only popular — it’s record-shattering. The song has become the longest-running No. 1 single in the 61-year history of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.And in Wellesley this spring, around the time the song took off, the street signs at either end of Old Town Road started being ripped away.From extras.That’s misdemeanor larceny, and it’s not easy to do. Each sign was on a pole about 12 feet tall and bolted into an underground anchor. The metal poles appeared to have been either unbolted or felled using a hacksaw.“Somebody’s got to be very determined to steal this sign,” Stephanie Hawkinson, a spokeswoman for the town, said in an interview on Monday.After each of the signs was stolen three times — for a total of six contraband “Old Town Rd.” signs whose whereabouts remain unknown — the city stopped replacing them. It’s expensive; each new pair of signs costs $250 (£207) or more, and that’s not including labour.