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.
Brain food... ;-)
No doubt the same people would have been sniggering at the very thought of passenger planes being flown into skyscrapers.
The "ad campaign" MIGHT have made more sense if the "cartoon characters" had been even slightly recognizable as such. That cartoon must be a real ratings loser.
How do we know what they were? We have drug smugglers using children's dolls and teddy bears.
We have palestinians using the shape of a pregnant woman to hide bombs.
Plastic explosives chan be shaped into anything, INSIDE anything.
The irony here is that Turner tought people knew this obscure cartoon. If anything, we should just simply ignore the show and the movie.
Being worried that "some how" free people put up electronic signs around an open city without being stopped isn't that frightening.
I don't think it's fair to point a finger at Boston authorities for overreacting. They were getting reports of suspicious devices. What are they supposed to do? They've got no choice but to react to the report, until they learn otherwise. We sure don't want them to start ignoring reports because of... what? They don't know what they have until they go out.
What's curious to me is that these gizmos were sitting in place for something like three weeks without anybody taking much notice of them, or raising any particular suspicion... then all of a sudden one day some six or more of them are simultaneously reported as "suspicious devices"??
There's your hoax. The publicity gimmick wasn't working. I'd bet money that it was the guys that put them up that had people call in and make reports of "suspicious" devices. They needed to nudge their project into public view... and that's how they did it.
Ya, somebody could filled the light polls with plastic explosives too...
There's no end to this line of reasoning.
Perhaps you are not the demographic they were targeting.
ATHF DVD sets are among the cartoon network's best-selling products.
No, the way you win is NOT by putting your head in the sand and ignoring what's going on around you. Lots of us missed what was going on with all the trial runs the 9/11 terrorists did prior to 9/11. To some, it might have been obvious, but if they'd have pointed it out, people like you would have laughed them out of the room.
Now, at least, the terrorists know that as long as they put a cartoon character (even ones as dubious as these) on their devices, no one will take them seriously. Until they explode.
Or the strobing lights could trigger epileptic seizures! Or they could start broadcasting the Koran in morse code!
You're right---this is getting silly.
I'm not criticizing the Boston cops. It's the governor there who does not know what a "hoax device" is, after he should have been fully briefed on the issue.
I knew who jackpot123 was around noon (3 in Boston), and the governor still does not get it?
He's protecting his ego.
I'd like to know who made the four almost simultaneous calls and what was said. Many people in the area knew about the signs; livejournal, youtube, flikr, photobucket, and myspace posts make that clear. It was common knowlege in the target audience.
Um, that might or might not mean something, depending on how they compare to other DVDs sold. I don't know that many people who even watch that network. Talk about brainrot.
They're looking at 190 years if convicted of all 38 counts.
Under state law, you need a permit, and there seem to be lots of restrictions. For $1.05, you can purchase your own copy of 711 CMR 1.00-3.00 Control and Restriction of Billboard Signs and Other Advertising Devices.
Proving, once more, that you are not their target audience.
Talk about brainrot.
You haven't seen the show, so your opinions on it are worthless.
Wrong on both counts.
You put way to much sophistication into something simple.
If terrorist want to randomly kill people on the street there are endless ways to do it without using cartoon characters to needlessly provide cover.
Back to the trash can on the street - or parked car - or planter with bushes in it - or any number of other hiding places they can put real explosive is real quantities that can cause real damage. It is brutally easy to kill us if you have the will and the explosives to do it.
You will not win if the only way to win is to remove the hiding places - they are endless.
Cheap electronic signs are nowhere on the list of requirements to do it.
No, but I've seen the really POORLY drawn "characters." For the record, I consider the entire network a waste of time.
It won't come anywhere near taking down a big bridge sitting on the side of it nor even a building.
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