Posted on 02/01/2007 3:16:22 AM PST by billorites
A furious Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino vowed yesterday to throw the book at the masterminds behind a guerrilla marketing campaign gone amok that plunged the city into bomb-scare pandemonium and blew nearly $1 million in police overtime and other costs.
As city and state attorneys laid groundwork for criminal charges and lawsuits, cops seized 27-year-old Arlington multimedia artist Peter Berdovsky, who posted film on his Web site boasting that he and friends planted the battery-wired devices, and Sean Stevens, 28, of Charlestown. Both were jailed overnight on charges of placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct.
“This is outrageous activity to get publicity for a failing show,” said Menino, referring to the battery-operated light-up ads for the Cartoon Network’s “Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” which sparked at least nine bomb scares in Boston, Cambridge and Somerville.
Menino promised to sue Turner Broadcasting Co., the Cartoon Network’s parent company, and criminally prosecute Berdovsky and anyone else responsible for the devices, and to petition the FCC to pull the network’s license.
Attorney General Martha Coakley was put in charge of the case and said the companies behind the promotion would be investigated. She said the felony charge of planting a hoax device could be broad enough to allow prosecution even if the stunt’s sponsors did not intend a panic.
“To do this kind of placement of devices the way it was, an individual had to know or should have that it was going to create the kind of panic it did,” Coakley said last night during a press conference.
Panic was the order of the day in Boston as city, state and federal investigators, police and bomb units raced through the city seeking 38 of the devices, in some cases destroying them as a precaution.
Shutdowns affected Storrow and Memorial drives, the Longfellow and Boston University bridges and Interstate 93, while extra Coast Guard patrols were seen at Rowes Wharf and at commuter ferries.
“I cannot state strongly enough the seriousness of this offense,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley. “Commerce was disrupted, transportation routes were paralyzed, residents were stranded, relatives across the nation were in fear for their loved ones here in the city of Boston.”
In a statement, Turner Broadcasting said the light-emitting devices pose no danger and are part of a 10-city outdoor marketing campaign for the cartoon program. A Boston police spokesman said the company did not have permits to place the signs in the city.
“We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger,” the Turner statment said.
All told, the cost of extra police and activating the city’s anti-terror command center will cost Boston $800,000 to $1 million in damages, an angry Menino estimated.
Gov. Deval Patrick said he was not impressed by the apology from Turner Broadcasting.“I am deeply dismayed to learn that the devices are a part of a marketing campaign. This stunt has caused considerable disruption and anxiety in our community,” he said.
The bomb scare reports began about 8 a.m. when a MBTA worker reported a package with wires and tubes protruding from it that was stuck on a steel girder under Interstate 93 at Sullivan Square Station in Charlestown. The devices, featuring characters with raised middle fingers, had magnetic backs and were affixed to metal.
The reports spread throughout the day to the Boston University and Longfellow bridges, Downtown Crossing, the intersection of Stuart Street and Columbus Avenue, the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Memorial Drive in Cambridge, the McCarthy Overpass on the McGrath O’Brien Highway in Somerville and at a comic book store in Brighton.
The discovery of two more devices last night at the Massachusetts College of Art prompted another brief evacuation. By the end of the day, investigators had recovered 14 of the 38 devices believed to be placed in the Boston area and urged the public to report the whereabouts of others.
Just after three p.m., two bomb-sniffing dogs swept through City Hall, spending 16 minutes in Menino’s office. “It is outrageous, in a post 9/11 world, that a company would use this irresponsible marketing scheme,” Menino said.
I don't think we pay the entire state trooper force that much per day. But how could it possibly have cost a million bucks to take down 38 of these things? That's a thousand people each getting a thousand dollars of overtime pay for a day's work?
What physical costs were there? Did they go to the store and BUY BOMB TRUCKS for the job, and throw them away when they were done?
Hey, I resemble that remark!
The first or second part?....Or both?
Yeah, but if we see an airplane flying too low and call 911, they aren't going to shut down the airline and throw the pilot in jail.
No, genius. You conserve the batteries to save you the expense and trouble of having to go out and replace them in two weeks. The cost of the batteries is negligible, as is the cost of a photo cell. The expense is in the labor. These things were designed to be placed and left, presumably. A unit that only works in the dark will work for twice as long.
Hey wonderboys - Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens - after years of being told you were above average and clever, it's time to grow up. Good luck catching the book you are about to receive.
Typical liberal "apology" that essentially says we're sorry you're too stupid to understand what we've done...it's used just about every time a liberal does something stupid and is too prideful to take responsibility for their actions. But it's exactly that unwillingness to take personal responsibility for their own actions that proves liberals are unqualified for leadership by their very nature.
That's not even a non-apology apology. It's a feeling. Nice. Throw the book at them. This should never happen again.
Hmmm I see a solution for the neighbor whose barking dog keeps you up at night.
Stop fantasizing and also being an apologist for overreacting idiots.
Take a peek at where these signs were placed.
If you wish to advertise you dont place your sign under a bridge.
These guys stepped in it. It was stupid. Tell Hanoi Janes husband to pay the Million dollars. he has it.
I guess this will cause Turner to cross Boston off his philanthropic gift list.
Ditto. From the news:
The company said that they have been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
Boston was the only city that freaked out over cartoon characters. Why didn’t the other cities??
I can actually imagine a panicky employee worried about his job, and he thinks "Hey, I'll just call 911 and tell them I saw a "suspicious-looking sign". After all, they are signs, and they obviously were "suspicious-looking" because the police couldn't tell they weren't bombs.
Would it be criminal? Maybe so, but would an average employee at a marketing agency see it as a crime to truthfully report that a device was hanging somewhere?
Are you contending that the reaction, or over-reaction, of the Boston Police was not forseeable?
So you think the people that put these up were considering visiting them regularly to maintain them? They were intended to be left, then found later and kept as souvenirs. The CEO of the marketing company said as much to the Boston Globe. I doubt anyone thought they'd be up more than a couple days. The photosensor would've added costs in material, brainpower, and labor for something that is basically a throwaway advertisement -- a high-tech flier.
How do you know they didn't? I would wager that quite a few of these signs have been removed by various police departments in those cities over the past three weeks. A lot of this stuff never makes the news.
The police had to act on them, and seeing the pictures of them taking down the devices it looks like once they were on scene, they got the idea.
However, they had to get all the devices, because it would be a clever thing to put up 38 devices, including a few in harder-to-find places with real explosives, hoping that once the police found a few and realised they were harmless they would let down their guard, and you could remote-detonate the real ones when you had enough police officers gawking over them.
If you wish to advertise you dont place your sign under a bridge.
These guys stepped in it. It was stupid. Tell Hanoi Janes husband to pay the Million dollars. he has it.
A bridge is a perfect place for an ad. Sorry if liberal goosesteping Boston police are too stupid to know the differance in an ad and a bomb. Turner is not as liberal as Jane, I suspect he mostly pretends to be a liberal. He is mostly an astute business man. Could be why they broke up.
Did you think they are adhesive-backed? The way they went up, I assumed they were magnetically attached, which is why they put them on bridge abutments and other metal structures.
If that is the case, then why was Boston unable to deal with this in the same calm and responsible manner as the other cities?
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