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Boston Scare Caused By Marketing Mistake
WNBC Television ^ | 02/01/07 | Puppage

Posted on 02/01/2007 5:02:47 AM PST by Puppage

BOSTON -- Nine blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a marketing campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. At least one of the devices depicts a character giving the finger.

Highways, bridges and a section of the Charles River were shut down and bomb squads were sent in before authorities declared the devices were harmless.

"It's a hoax -- and it's not funny," said Gov. Deval Patrick.

Turner Broadcasting, parent company of Cartoon Network, said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."

"The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger," Turner said in a statement. It said the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in 10 cities: Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Austin, Texas, San Francisco and Philadelphia.

"We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger," the company said.

Police said only that they were investigating where the device came from. The Department of Homeland Security said there are no credible reports of other devices being found elsewhere in the country.

An angry Mayor Thomas Menino said a stiff penalty will be pursued against whoever was responsible for the devices.

"It's about keeping a city on edge. It's about public safety," he said.

Authorities said some of the objects looked like circuit boards or had wires hanging from them.

The first device was found at a subway and bus station underneath Interstate 93, forcing the shutdown of the station and the highway.

Later, police said four calls, all around 1 p.m., reported devices at the Boston University Bridge and the Longfellow Bridge, both of which span the Charles River, at a Boston street corner and at the Tufts-New England Medical Center.

The package near the Boston University bridge was found attached to a structure beneath the span, authorities said.

Subway service across the Longfellow Bridge between Boston and Cambridge was briefly suspended, and Storrow Drive was closed as well.

Wanda Higgins, a 47-year-old Weymouth resident and a nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, heard about the threat as she watched television news coverage while preparing to leave work at 4 p.m.

"I saw the bomb squad guys carrying a paper bag with their bare hands," Higgins said. "I knew it couldn't be too serious."

Messages seeking additional comment from the Atlanta-based Cartoon Network were left with several publicists.

"Aqua Teen Hunger Force" is a cartoon with a cultish following that airs as part of the Adult Swim late-night block of programs for adults on the Cartoon Network. A feature length film based on the show is slated for release March 23.

The surreal series centers on a talking milkshake (Master Shake), fries (Frylock) and a meatball (Meatwad).

The cartoon also includes two trouble-making, 1980s-graphic-like characters called "mooninites," named Ignignokt and Err -- who were pictured on the suspicious devices. They are known for making the obscene hand gesture depicted on the devices.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: advertising; boston; hysteria; ignorethedevice; littering; postnobills
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To: Miss Marple

Did you see their "press conference"? Total jerks. I hope they rot the rest of their lives away in jail.


181 posted on 02/01/2007 9:26:40 AM PST by MizSterious (Anonymous sources often means "the voices in my head told me.")
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To: MizSterious
Did you see their "press conference"? Total jerks. I hope they rot the rest of their lives away in jail.

Are you even listening to yourself? You sound like a complete lunatic.

182 posted on 02/01/2007 9:30:03 AM PST by Wormwood (Your Friendly Neighborhood Moderate)
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To: Wormwood

Ah, spoken by the person with his/her head in the sand.


183 posted on 02/01/2007 9:31:47 AM PST by MizSterious (Anonymous sources often means "the voices in my head told me.")
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To: MizSterious
Did you see their "press conference"? Total jerks. I hope they rot the rest of their lives away in jail.

Why? Because paranoid public servants made fools of themselves?

No wonder they were mocking the process... it's highly mockable.

184 posted on 02/01/2007 9:33:11 AM PST by wizecrakker (Trying to behave)
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To: Wormwood

And gee, thinking these things might be explosive devices is almost as silly as...hmmm...flying airplanes into building? Or how about putting explosives into the soles of shoes? Or maybe it's as silly as thinking a pregnant woman might actually be wearing a bomb vest?


185 posted on 02/01/2007 9:33:27 AM PST by MizSterious (Anonymous sources often means "the voices in my head told me.")
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To: MizSterious

You stay in your bunker. The rest of us have lives to live.


186 posted on 02/01/2007 9:34:27 AM PST by Wormwood (Your Friendly Neighborhood Moderate)
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To: Wormwood

And you, Wormwood, should of course go on your merry way thinking nothing can go wrong in your life...until that terrible moment when you have to pay the stupidity tax. Sometimes it's a real killer.


187 posted on 02/01/2007 9:35:41 AM PST by MizSterious (Anonymous sources often means "the voices in my head told me.")
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To: MizSterious
Did you see their "press conference"? Total jerks. I hope they rot the rest of their lives away in jail.

They could be sentenced up to 190 years if convicted of all 38 counts.....and one of them could face deportation.

188 posted on 02/01/2007 9:37:32 AM PST by Boston Blackie
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To: longtermmemmory
How do we know what they were? We have drug smugglers using children's dolls and teddy bears.

Using that argument should we bring a parent up on charges if his five year old son leaves a teddy bear in a park and the police send in the bomb squad?

The terrorists win if we live our lives in fear of doing anything that might be misinterpreted by the stupidest government official.

I for one will not be reporting every glowstick, firecracker, teddy bear or transformer robot I see left on a bench to the Department of Homeland Security.

They have much more serious things to worry about.
189 posted on 02/01/2007 9:38:35 AM PST by MaxFlint
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To: MizSterious; Wormwood
For all of those who thought that the Boston "authorities" weren't total laughing stocks I have a present for you:
present
190 posted on 02/01/2007 9:38:38 AM PST by from occupied ga (Your most dangerous enemy is your own government)
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To: MizSterious
You called for life imprisonment for what is *at best* a misdemeanor offense (or was it because they're "jerks". I forget)

Madam, you are hysterical. Perhaps a you should take a nice nap.

191 posted on 02/01/2007 9:39:07 AM PST by Wormwood (Your Friendly Neighborhood Moderate)
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To: LoneRangerMassachusetts
Three weeks to notice a marketing campaign?

No, three weeks for someone to come along who can look at a marketing campaign piece that looks nothing like a bomb, decide it looks like a bomb, and call the police.

192 posted on 02/01/2007 9:39:43 AM PST by Bubba Ho-Tep
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To: Boston Blackie
They could be sentenced up to 190 years if convicted of all 38 counts.....and one of them could face deportation.

Proof that the terrorists have finally won.

193 posted on 02/01/2007 9:39:59 AM PST by Wormwood (Your Friendly Neighborhood Moderate)
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To: MizSterious
Or maybe it's as silly as thinking a pregnant woman might actually be wearing a bomb vest?

So any pregnant woman walking around in public is obviously committing a bomb scare?

194 posted on 02/01/2007 9:41:38 AM PST by wizecrakker (Trying to behave)
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To: Boston Blackie
They could be sentenced up to 190 years if convicted of all 38 counts.....and one of them could face deportation.

Ridiculous. The people that should be facing 190 years are the politicos that got fat on big dig dough.

195 posted on 02/01/2007 9:44:30 AM PST by wizecrakker (Trying to behave)
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To: MizSterious
And gee, thinking these things might be explosive devices is almost as silly as...hmmm...flying airplanes into building? Or how about putting explosives into the soles of shoes? Or maybe it's as silly as thinking a pregnant woman might actually be wearing a bomb vest?

No, it's much, much sillier. Airplanes, flown into buildings, are potent weapons. A long history of aviation accidents, terrorist plans, and terrorist attacks proves this. Bomb vests are potent weapons. A long history of terrorist attacks proves this. In a confined area, even a shoe bomb may be a potent weapon. Reasoning about the effect of small explosives in airborne planes proves this. These tiny devices, in their context, could not have been potent weapons. Not unless you throw out all experience and reasoning, and operate on fantasy alone.

196 posted on 02/01/2007 9:45:18 AM PST by Caesar Soze
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To: Bommer

Exactly. It's interesting that they were in all these cities, and yet only in John F. Kerry's "terrorism = nuisance" city they got worried about possible terrorist act.

BTW, I wouldn't underestimate this to capture attention of jihadists - they've been trying to "immunize" us (like recent "airplane imams" trial run) from paying attention to this kind of stuff.


197 posted on 02/01/2007 9:46:03 AM PST by CutePuppy (If you don't ask the right questions you may not get the right answers)
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To: Wormwood

Unfortunately, they have violated several city and state laws.


198 posted on 02/01/2007 9:46:51 AM PST by Boston Blackie
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To: Boston Blackie
Unfortunately, they have violated several city and state laws.

Uh, like what? "POST NO BILLS?"

An infraction, like littering, at the most.

199 posted on 02/01/2007 9:49:02 AM PST by Smogger (It's the WOT Stupid)
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To: wizecrakker

That is another topic ..... but 190 years each for the big dig politicos is much too lenient.


200 posted on 02/01/2007 9:52:27 AM PST by Boston Blackie
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