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 Networks 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 Networks parent company, and criminally prosecute Berdovsky and anyone else responsible for the devices, and to petition the FCC to pull the networks 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 stunts 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 citys 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 OBrien 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 Meninos office. It is outrageous, in a post 9/11 world, that a company would use this irresponsible marketing scheme, Menino said.
OMG, how could anybody have thought that was a bomb?
I am shocked that San Fransico didn't think they were mean't as an insult to guy's. Maybe they thought it was Sponge Bob flipping it to the straight guys.
If you could have your high tech flier work for four days instead of two for the cost of the addition of a 35 cent photocell, wouldn't you add the photocell?
I'm just speculating, of course. I have no idea if there was a photocell included, here. My electronic knowledge is derived largely from the old 100-in-1 kit I had as a kid. But a photocell switch is pretty easy to make.
Was the reaction of the Boston police forseealbe?
I would say not.
But then again, unreasonable behavior is fairly unpredictable.
That's been working pretty well on airplanes, hasn't it? Harmless chanting, harmless conversations, harmless serial trips to the bathroom, harmless refusals to stay in one's seat. At the least, the thousands of unaffiliated but fervent jihadists who would like to "help" but lack means or will to blow anything up now have an answer to the question, "what can one brother do?" A tutorial for empowering nutcases and losers wanting to make an impact.
This response and free publicity is probably exactly what these 'guerrilla marketers' were looking for. I hope Boston suprises the b*stards by slapping them with jail time and punitive fines high enough to hurt them.
Turner has just released a statement saying "they understand the gravity of the case".
The Boys love to play with their toys, don't they?
"but be some"
Where the hell did that "be" come from?
Does the fact that there reaction was unreasonable make it less forseeable? We're talking about the Boston Police, here.
IT looks like they were held up magnetically, and therefore they were placed where they could be high enough not to be stolen, and on a magnetic metal object where they could be seen.
Good grief, that's what they looked like?
What if they found some kids with Lite Brites? Would they throw them in jail too?
Dismayed? I'd think you would be ELATED to learn the devices were harmless. What were you hoping for Gov. Patrick?
Hey, I've seen a few cars stuck to bridge supports.
You may have a point there.
Finally the "Rules don't apply to us" crowd will get their just reward.
debacle that made him look like a freakin' idiot.
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