Local prostitutes in South Auckland, New Zealand are being accused of destroying street signs by using them for pole dancing routines designed to attract customers.

In the last 18 months, more than 40 poles have been bent, buckled or broken and the signs, which include notices of parking restrictions, cost taxpayers thousands of dollars to replace.

Elected officials such as Donna Lee say the culprits are local prostitutes who use them like stripper poles in a dance club.

“The poles are part of their soliciting equipment and they often snap them,” she told The Telegraph. ”Some of the prostitutes are big, strong people.”

But some American pole dancers such as Wendy Traskos, founder of the U.S. Pole Dancing Federation, believe that New Zealand locals are being unfair to the sport of “urban pole dancing,” (um, what??) an activity where practitioners take what they’ve learned in gyms or clubs and apply it to metal street signs, wooden stakes or scaffolds. [Huffington Post]