The Charlotte banker found the sign so entertaining he told everyone he knew. He got a few laughs -- and a lot of stares.

``My friends and my family didn't believe me at first,'' said Roach, a 22-year-old First Union financial analyst who saw the sign last month on Interstate 26 near Clinton. ``Yeah, whatever, they said. Thought I was nuts.''

Someone, it seems, has been playing reindeer games with South Carolina's deer-crossing signs.

In the past few weeks, motorists and state officials have spotted dozens of the road signs vandalized in the holiday spirit -- with quarter-sized red stickers stuck on the noses of the leaping deer, transforming Donners and Blitzens into Rudolphs.

Such signs have been occasionally spotted in the past, but transportation officials have never seen such an epidemic. They're on major roads from Spartanburg to Myrtle Beach to Charleston. A few red-nosed deer have wandered north, onto road signs along I-40 in North Carolina.

No one knows who's responsible, but someone has gone to a lot of trouble: the signs are 7 feet tall and would require a ladder -- or a really tall person -- to reach; and each nose has not just one sticker, but seven to nine, carefully bunched together to make Rudolph's nose shine so bright.

``Is this a low-budget state or federal highway beautification program that I've somehow missed hearing about?'' asked Rod Welch, who publishes an S.C. e-mail newsletter and has made solving the Rudolph mystery his personal quest.

On second thought, he said, ``I don't think it's a government-sponsored thing. The government isn't organized enough to do something like that.''

Indeed, state transportation officials profess their innocence.

``We wouldn't put up signs with red noses on them,'' said Wayne Feaster, the S.C. Department of Transportation sign coordinator. ``That's not in compliance with our manual on uniform traffic control devices.''

Besides, Feaster said, ``we don't see too many red-nosed reindeers or little fat men wearing red suits on the interstate in South Carolina.''

Searching for an answer to the mystery, Welch queried his 10,000 e-mail subscribers about the signs and got back dozens of messages from South Carolinians who've spotted them, but none admitted responsibility.

Some suspect the S.C. Law Enforcement Division -- a.k.a. SLED -- may be behind the Rudolphs. But when Welch asked SLED if the agency knew who the culprit was, SLED responded with a terse e-mail: ``Who nose?''

Meanwhile, as Chistmas approaches, the holiday spirit has overtaken Roach's friends and family. They, too, have become believers.

``Now they're all keeping their eyes out for the noses,'' Roach said. ``It's a nice little break from the monotony of the road.''

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