Boston Scare Caused By Marketing Mistake

WNBC Television ^ | 02/01/07 | Puppage

[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.

[RightWhale]

The problem was in using public property without permission. It's public property, and that means no private use is allowed and this means YOU. Next time get the permit.

[Constitution Day]

Well, maybe you will be needing those instructions, when you're... COLD AS ICE.

[Miss Marple]

Hello, Miz. I have been gone this afternoon and came home just in time to see a clip of these two idiots, mocking everyone in their press conference.

As I surmised, they are art students ("performance artists"). My daughter was an art major and I have run into a lot of these people over the last few years.

They are self-absorbed, contemptuous of society, overly concerned with appearance over substance, and generally unable to relate to the general public.

I still maintain that seeing these things in daylight one would be unable to see the character they were portraying, and with the batteries and wires and the fact they were attached to infrastructure, it is easy to see how people got alarmed.

Of course, I am simply stupid, according to all these cool people who can INSTANTLY distinguish bombs from harmless items, and who watch cartoons for entertainment. HA!

[ladyjane]

The level of hostility and rudeness on this thread is disappointing. No better than DU.

[jmc813]

Jumping is useless.

Just...stand there for a minute.

[jmc813]

So... the next time there are six or so calls from all over reporting suspicious boxes that all sound similar, say in various shopping malls, they should just blow it off?

I like to shoplift electronic equipment from malls while smoking.

[jmc813]

I'm just glad they didn't have the Foreigner belt. Who knows what havoc they might have caused.

I saw Foreigner one. Meadowlands, '84. Damn good show!

[jmc813]

They are self-absorbed, contemptuous of society

It's hard not to be contemptuous of a society that has three dimensions. We have five. Thousand.

[Miss Marple]

Still think it's a joke, huh? Okay.

[jmc813]

Still think it's a joke, huh?

The stufff I've been posting have been inside jokes. If you saw the episodes of this show involving the character on these signs, I guarantee you'd get at least a chuckle.

[Mr. Blonde]

There is something wrong with watching cartoons for entertainment? What am I supposed to watch them for?

I don't think the problem is necessarily with people thinking they are bombs, but with the over reaction from the police. Seems like it should have quickly became apparent that these were most likely not bombs, and sending the entire SWAT team to each location was probably not needed.

[longtermmemmory]

Have you met what is graduating from the police accademy these days?

The thin blue line is a very much us vs them mentality.

The good first line of defense cop is the exception not the rule.

Plus, do you really want those mental midgets distinguishing between a lite brite and a bomb?

[Major_Risktaker]

First of all, we ARE in a post 9-11 world. People who don't think this is a big deal are not understanding how much things have changed.

_____________________________

Suspicious Aqua Teen Hunger Force OH NO!

Living in post 9-11 sucks. Are Americans to fear forever the invisible terrorist. In my world I would have nuked every Muslim capitol in the world and erase all existence of Mohammedanism off the planet after 9-11. You could say I would have gone totally Roman on Islam and call it a Carthaginian day.

But Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

American imports Islam like Japanese cars to our shores and forever we must live with the Patriot Act and be SUSPICIOUS of everything and everyone.

Sorry pal, this is not the America or world I want for anyone.

____________________________

This is how ridiculous Islam is.

How to practice Islam in space?

he astronaut will also visit the International Space Station, which circles the earth 16 times in 24 hours, so another thorny question is how to pray five times a day as required by Islam.

Muslims also have to turn towards Mecca to pray and working out which direction that will be while hovering above the earth might be challenging.

______________________________

Jail toilets face away from Mecca.

Faith leaders had told prison bosses it was unacceptable for Muslim inmates to face Mecca while using the toilet.

_____________________________

Mohammedanism is incompatible with Western Civilization. Either total war or keep them in the sand box but this 100 years war BS, $4 trillion dollars tack on to the national debt with local and global paranoia in not the answer.

[Bommer]

Plus, do you really want those mental midgets distinguishing between a lite brite and a bomb?

Hell what choice do we have? Sorry but I'm almost 45; I love ATHF and LMAO when they pulled out a Mooninite thinking it was a Bomb! I knew people in Massachusetts where morons but I never thought they would steep to this level of stupidity....then again they keep reelecting Kennedy and Kerry,!

[RobRoy]

Man, you can't BUY advertising like this!

[Smokin' Joe]

Well, now that "everyone knows" these are just part of an ad campaign, what "ads" will be next? On bridge structural elements, power poles with transformers, and a host of other locations in plain view which could be 'casually' (in plain view) important infrastructure.

The possibilites to the devious mind just go on and on, but this has emphasized a cultural vulnerability.

No one wants to be incautious, but no one wants to seem like an idiot, either.

Sooner or later the little shepherd boy will cry "Wolf!", and end up dog poop.

[vikk]

I found it behind the armoire...of despair!!