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.
If I remember right, here in town, there was only one initial panic as they put them in newspaper boxes. Do you remember that as well?
Episode? Hmmm... has somebody started a pool on when ATHF airs an episode parodying this incident.
Does anyone have pics of these things? From what I've read, they'd been up in the city for at least 2 weeks (not only in Boston but other big cities, too) and no one noticed how threatening they were til now? Just seems bizarre.
Scanning this first thing in the morning before coffee, I read "Menino" as another word beginning with "M" and often paired with "Outraged".
If they announced that they were fake devices and they really didn't appear to be real devices then they may get off.
But it was stupid.
Agreed. This cost the city a small fortune, and caused commuters a major inconvenience.
Just think of the carbon footprint of those traffic jams.
I've received quite a bit of training on how to identify improvised explosive devices, and not once did anyone mention "blinking lights." Perhaps you are confusing "training" with "Hollywood conditioning?"
Historically, terrorist bombs are concealed in everyday objects. Trucks were used in the attacks in OKC and NYC. The unabomber sent plain-looking packages. Iraqi insurgents use boxes, concrete, and dead animals. They typically aren't flat PCB boards with lights on them; they have to have some kind of mass to cause an explosion.
Countenancing the obvious fraud that these items could be mistaken for bombs just confuses the public and compounds an error. The boy who cried wolf shouldn't be in charge of the sheepdogs.
Gazooks! They *FEAR* a wonderful cartoon stunt. What they *should* fear is all the idiocy regarding homosexual marriage, and brain-washing school kids that perversion is healthy and normal.
Yeah, someone puts up a light bright, let's jail them and throw away the key.
If you took one look at that thing and thought it was a bomb, you and anyone else who thinks it was a bomb is a blithering idiot.
No one puts lights on a bomb, ever. In the movies it may blink or whatever but real bombs don't advertise.
Sounds to me like common sense is missing. The people involved in the gimmick should have cleared it with law enforcement first. If the participants in the gimmick called 9-11 to report suspicious packages, they should be held accountable. Perhaps they called because the were not getting enough attention. Advertising, like the stupid radio show where the woman died from drinking too much water are all over the place. They go too far for attention at times. Once the cops knew it was a hoax, they should have treated it less seriously without inconveniencing the citizens any more.
There were no bombs nor threats. They don't have anything to charge.
LOL
will the batteries be recycled or thrown into a landfill?
The fact that they were up for 2-3 weeks in several other cities, with no official overreaction, says a lot. What it says, does not reflect well upon Boston's crack police and overall "homeland security".Worth repeating!And now, they're all full of indignation and bluster, threatening prosecution, as a smokescreen for their own poor reaction.
"Kids call in bomb threats at schools and disrupt classes"
Who made threats?
Thanks for the picture. WHAT FLAMING IDIOTS to think these things were bombs!!! Real terrorists would never, ever, ever, make their bombs obvious and easy to find. ("Hey look here, I'm a bomb. Defuse me..") Good God, how can these people be so stupid?! But then again, these incredible stupid people vote in Kerry and Kennedy as their elected representatives.
There is a picture up on Drudge. Also, these devices were displayed in multiple locations in 10 cities. Only Boston panicked, weeks after they were first put up.
I can't overstate how incompetent and corrupt law enforcement is in Massachusetts.....the only state out of 50 that still has leo's as flagmen on construction sites and an FBI that protected mobsters for decades.
Why is it that no other city had any problem with these gimmick signs for the three weeks that they were up?
Don't worry. President Palmer will have them released in no time.
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