Posted on 01/31/2007 12:04:30 PM PST by Howlin
BOSTON -- Four "hoax devices" were found at several Boston locations Wednesday, hours after officials detonated a suspicious package on an elevated structure above the Sullivan Square Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority station.
The additional packages were found at the Boston University Bridge, the Longfellow Bridge and near the intersection of Stuart and Columbus streets. A device described by officials as a pipe bomb was found in the basement of the Tufts New England Medical Center at 185 Harrison Ave.
A spokesman for the Boston Police Department said that all of the packages appeared to be similar.
"Our device was not an active device. We are still treating the area as a crime scene. There were no injuries. Everyone was evacuated properly, and everyone now back to their locations," Tufts New England Medical Center's Brooke Hynes said.
Mayor Tom Menino said that all of the packages found posed no danger, but the incidents remained under investigation. Storrow Drive eastbound was shut down for a brief time, and the MBTA suspended service on the Red Line and planned to bus afternoon commuters between Kendall and Park Street stations.
Earlier Wednesday, the state police bomb squad was called and detonated the package in Sullivan Square just before 10 a.m. Officials said it contained an electronic circuit board with some components that were "consistent with an improvised explosive device," but they said it had no explosives. They determined that the device was not dangerous, but destroyed it as a precaution.
"We determined that this device, in particular, was not explosive," said MBTA Lt. Sal Venturelli.
He said MBTA police were told about the package by a transit passenger who spotted it on a column that supports Interstate 93. The parcel was located on an elevated structure above the bus way and below I-93 in the Charlestown section of Boston at about 8 a.m.
"This is a perfect example of our passengers taking part in Homeland Security," Venturelli said.
An investigation will be conducted into how the package got there and when, he said.
Train service on the Orange Line between Sullivan Square and Wellington stations was suspended in both directions. No injuries were reported.
The northbound side of I-93 was closed, causing significant traffic backups. Motorists were not allowed to access the highway near Sullivan Square coming up from the south.
Who made those calls and why will be very telling.
Remember virtually ALL "facts" in breaking stories are wrong.
From quickly searching around the internet I've divined several things:
1) These LED billboards have been up for weeks in cities all over the country before today.
2) They weren't intended to look like bombs or be hoax bombs.
3) I've not seen a scrap of evidence that the marketing campaign was behind the suspicious package calls - likely there was one call about one, and then once it hit the news, there was a sudden rush of other people who had seen them calling in.
I didn't know leaving blinking lights around in public was a crime.
Fox John Gibson interviewed a Time Warner guy....he asked the same question. Why didn't the ad people alert authorities? TW guy didn't know.
These devices were circuit boards. I guess they're all over the country. Are they lit up with the image? I guess I'm just not seeing the point why this is such a great idea....
It's called guerrilla marketing. They left these things around the city as an advertising stunt. Someone panicked and called the cops, and it got blown way out of proportion.
Some advertising executive is sitting at home this evening saying "As God as my witness I thought Turkeys could fly".
Tonight... the guy who planted the LED devices.
"I didn't know leaving blinking lights around in public was a crime."
(Just catching up) I think the fact that these clowns left them in suspicious places says it all! They must have wanted them to look like 'suspicious devices' and for that they should be arrested! Just my two cents. I can see the Islamic terrorists laughing their asses off right now in their stupid caves......gee thanks alot CNN!!
And really, since when does CNN get a pass? They talk to terrorists all the time (eye roll)
LOL. Bad to laugh but so help me that kept coming to mind.
The funny thing is that in the past I have seen posters on FR post pictures of the little cartoon character in question.
2 of the 9/11 planes left from here. People are still trying to get home. My husband was in traffic for 3 hours downtown today. Hundreds of thousands had their day thrown into a topsy turvy mess and you are being condescending.
Turner and the Guerilla Marketers should be sued up the kazoo, any one who thinks this is funny is just wrong.
I don't see how I was being condescending. 'Howlin' was confused and I explained it to him.
"We did it because our civilization is hundreds of years beyond your own. We have five thousand dimensions!"
My guess is Time Warner didn't connect the dots until a picture of the light up device was posted on the internet or shown on the media.
Send them to gitmo for 10 years! Hoaxes can kill people! what if somebody sees a bomb and floors it and runs over a pedestrian.
People are missing the point - these weren't intended to look like bombs, or be a bomb hoax in order to get publicity.
You have to remember that Adult Swim is a microscopic, fairly independent unit under Cartoon Network which is under Turner TV which is under Time Warner - most of the executives in the company probably don't know what a Mooninite looks like, themselves,
Let me clarify my last post, I guess they didn't connect the dots until a picture of the light up device was shown in the media or on the internet as being one of the "suspicious packages".
Understood.
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