Sticking a neck out for traffic safety

A lot of drivers who are speeding through one Oakland Park neighborhood are slowing down to get a look at this: a 7-foot-tall giraffe wearing a speed limit sign.

Well, it mostly looks like a giraffe. One could argue that it’s an alpaca with more neck, but it’s enough of a giraffe for us.

In any case, the shaggy, stuffed animal on the corner of Northeast Sixth Avenue and 35th Street wears a handpainted poster board sign reminding drivers that the speed limit is 30 mph.

Though he doesn’t get thirsty, the giraffe is tethered to a tall jug of water and is accompanied by Bruce Felker, who wears a big smile and waves at passing motorists from the front lawn of his home.

Felker, 73, a retired auto mechanic, said he was concerned

about the safety of children who walk to and from nearby Oakland Park Elementary School. He’s noticed vehicles going too fast and other hazardous conditions, especially toward the end of the week.

“The kids get out at the same time the ice cream truck comes by, and they chase that guy down,” he said. “I just don’t want to see anyone get hurt.”

Felker said the giraffe showed up on his porch

one morning several weeks ago. “Someone must have left it as a joke,” he said.

Though the tall giraffe made out of cloth doesn’t look very much like Geoffrey, he thinks it may have come from the nowshuttered Toys R Us on Federal Highway where Geoffrey was the official mascot for the chain of toy stores which filed for bankruptcy last year.

“We had it in the house for a while,” he explained. While wondering what he would do with a tall stuffed animal, Felker concluded that he could use it for traffic safety in his neighborhood. “Put a sign and attract attention to see if I can get people to go 30,” he said.

Reactions have been positive. “A police officer stopped by to tell me he liked it,” Felker said. “People stop by and take pictures, school bus drivers come by and give you a thumbs up,” he said.

“It’s calm now,” Felker said, on Wednesday morning as cars streamed by, some tooting their horns as drivers as passengers smiled and waved at him.

“But come Friday afternoon at three o’clock, watch it.”

JOE CAVARETTA/SUN SENTINEL Bruce Felker waves to traffic from his home Wednesday on the corner of Sixth Avenue and 35th Street in Oakland Park. Felker put up a stuffed giraffe with the 30 mph sign because of safety concerns for children walking to a nearby school.