Which room is a better place to hide stuff?
A lot of visual clutter makes it easy to hide stuff.
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'm no fan of Deval Patrick, but I'm pretty confident that he was happy that the devices were harmless, but dismayed that people would be so irresponsible.
I would fault him for being dismayed instead of outraged.
At some point irresponsiblity becomes actionable. This is beyond that point.
Yeah, too bad it's illegal here without a permit -- and they don't to my knowledge issue permits for advertising on bridges. At least I've never seen any advertising on one.
Maybe if you go into outdoor advertising, you'd better get a lawyer first.
Which crowd is that? The marketers or the State?
I like how someone thought they had to "fuzz out" the character's hand. Given he doesn't have 5 fingers, for all you know he's saying "I'm number one!!"
Yep...like I said, better safe than sorry. It's a sick world we live in and unfortunately too many people simply do not want to see it.
It's legal in most places, as long as they are not spray painted or bumper stickers. Other places it is not. Fairly common in many places.
Which room is a better place to hide stuff?
A lot of visual clutter makes it easy to hide stuff.
In other words, you should check with a local lawyer before you start.
Turner
Amen brother.
Yep...like I said, better safe than sorry. It's a sick world we live in and unfortunately too many people simply do not want to see it.
This is obviously a reply from dumb to dumber. To have a bomb you need to have room for the explosives, these had maybe enough space for a firecracker. I can assure you that if the assembler had spilt white powder in this then those goose stepers would have spent ten million looking for every last one, not as confident about a fire cracker but maybe then too. If you want an effective way to hide a real bomb, try parking a yellow truck in a parking garage.
It's easier and less likely to be detected if you simply drop the bomb in trash can on the street.
Your lap top is a threat to an enclosed airplane - not the outside of a bridge or a building.
Now if I could only figure out a way for everybody to bring me candy...
I suspect they did.
In that case, they have grounds for a legal malpractice suit.
In that case, they have grounds for a legal malpractice suit.
I didn't say it wasn't a "good" place. I said it was illegal. You know, just as occasionally some nut notices that it would be much faster to drive on the sidewalk, the street being so cluttered with cars.
And if idiots clutter up your bridge supports and public infrastructure with a lot of stick on electronic krep, it makes it a lot easier to hide a bomb.
LOL. Not surprised it wasn’t noticed in SF. They probably saw it, though it was “art”, and didn’t remove it for fear of being sued.
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