Publicity Stunt Suspects Released

2 Men Accused Of Putting Electronic Ads For Cartoon Around Boston Prompting Scare

(CBS/AP)  Two men who authorities say placed electronic advertising around the city were released from jail Thursday, apparently amused with the publicity stunt that stirred fears of terrorism and shut down parts of the city.

Peter Berdovsky, 27, and Sean Stevens, 28, were released on $2,500 cash bond after each pleaded not guilty to placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct for placing an ad found Wednesday at a subway station. They waved and smiled as they greeted people in court.

Outside, they met reporters and television cameras and launched into a nonsensical discussion of hair styles of the 1970s. "What we really want to talk about today — it's kind of important to some people — it's haircuts of the 1970s," Berdovsky said.

Officials found 38 blinking electronic signs promoting the Cartoon Network TV show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" on bridges and other high-profile spots across the city Wednesday, prompting the closing of a highway and the deployment of bomb squads. The surreal series is about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball. The network is a division of Turner Broadcasting Systems Inc.

The 1-foot tall signs, which were lit up, resembled a circuit board, with protruding wires and batteries. Most depicted a boxy, cartoon character giving passersby the finger — a more obvious sight when darkness fell.

"It's clear the intent was to get attention by causing fear and unrest that there was a bomb in that location," Assistant Attorney General John Grossman said at their arraignment.

Berdovsky posted video on the Web of him placing the devices around Boston, reported The Early Show correspondent Joie Chen.

The devices were planted in nine other cities, but with far less dramatic results. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Austin, Texas, San Francisco and Philadelphia all had the devices for the past few weeks, Chen reported.

Chicago police said Thursday they questioned two men who posted 20 electronic advertising devices around Chicago as part of the nationwide publicity ploy.

Police Superintendent Phil Cline says the two men haven't been charged. They were both released after questioning.The signs were recovered yesterday from locations around Chicago, including CTA trains, elevated platforms and storefronts

In the Boston case, the men did not speak or enter their own pleas, but they appeared amused and smiled as the prosecutor talked about the device found at Sullivan Station underneath Interstate 93, looking like it had C-4 explosive.

"The appearance of this device and its location are crucial," Grossman said. "This device looks like a bomb."

Some in the gallery snickered.

Outside the courthouse, Michael Rich, a lawyer for both of the men, said the description of a bomb-like device could be used for any electronic device.

"If somebody had left a VCR on the ground it would have been a device with wires, electronic components and a power source," he said.

Boston officials were livid when the devices were discovered.

[hillaryin08]

They should send these guys to Club Gitmo!

[deadanimal]

"Hoaxes are a tremendous burden on local law enforcement and counter-terrorism resources and there's absolutely no place for them in a post-9/11 world," Knocke said.

Give me a break. They know *** well that this was not a hoax. They were not attempting to scare anyone or make anyone think they were planting bombs. They were "planting" circuit boards with lighted cartoon characters on them. Since Osama Bin Laden is a huge fan of "Adult Swim", it's easy to see why people were suspicious of the devices...yeah right. If these "devices" had lighted crucifixes on them, not only would these guys NOT have been arrested, the Religious Right would have been demonstrating to keep the devices in place.

[mgpm-2009]

these guys should get hard time just for being so stoopid in this day and age to pull such a stunt.

[rray52]

I love it.
Just when I thought the panic over global warming was the best around, along comes Boston.
We don't need Cartoon Network, we have real live clowns.

[nothappyatall]

"New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Austin, Texas, San Francisco and Philadelphia all had the devices for the past few weeks. "

ONLY BOSTON authorities went off the deep end, blowing one of the devices up and now because they look like dumb clueless sheep they want revenge on the guys who are responsible for making them look bad.
A lawyer will get them off, when the "hoax" charge comes out in court any idiot- even a Repubicon judge can see this is bogus.

[mgpm-2009]

It is stupid when we have real terrorist threats to deal with. Sorry. They should have known the response wouldn't have been favorable.

[cepe10-2009]

Really scary! - The law enforcement agencies that is! If they are this incompetant - to mistake a cartoon ad campaign for a terrorsist plolt we are in real trouble. The not admitting their mistake and trying to blow it out of proportion only adds to their blunder!

[wodiegt]

The most ridiculous thing is that it is known as the "Boston Hoax" just because that's where morons overreacted to it. As the article stated, these ploys were used in multiple cities spanning the country, yet the geniuses in Massachusetts were the only ones stupid enough to think that Ignignokt flipping them off was a bomb... incompetence at its best.

Boston can now be the official "City of Stupidity and Ignorance". None of the other major cities over-reacted like the idiots in Massoftwoshits. Either that or nobody in Boston watches ATHF. I wonder what they do if you leave a paper bag in the middle of the Commons, evacuate to Rhode Island and Maine? Well, I'm having fun watching the hand-wringing and "iron fist" of the law come down on this harmless exposure of ignorance.
-Lizard

Boston can now be the official "City of Stupidity and Ignorance". None of the other major cities over-reacted like the idiots in Massoftwoshits. Either that or nobody in Boston watches ATHF. I wonder what they do if you leave a paper bag in the middle of the Commons, evacuate to Rhode Island and Maine? Well, I'm having fun watching the hand-wringing and "iron fist" of the law come down on this harmless exposure of ignorance.
-Lizard

Boston can now be the official "City of Stupidity and Ignorance". None of the other major cities over-reacted like the idiots in Massoftwoshits. Either that or nobody in Boston watches ATHF. I wonder what they do if you leave a paper bag in the middle of the Commons, evacuate to Rhode Island and Maine? Well, I'm having fun watching the hand-wringing and "iron fist" of the law come down on this harmless exposure of ignorance.
-Lizard

[wadecounty01]

there is a freaking easter bunny in my yard

[bellonet]

so this guy working for a marketing company is in the back of a cop car while the marketing company won't take any calls.

Frankly, I'm a little surprised that more people around the country did not react to these things adversely. This cartoon character shows up rarely on a marginally popular late night cartoon that has a relatively small audience. The people who reported it are definitely not in the ATHF demographic, and were already on edge because they'd just had a bomb scare earlier in the week.

Over-reaction? Perhaps--yet understandable. Badly planned and tasteless publicity campaign? Absolutely.

Let's save the stupid, tasteless ideas for the Superbowl halftime commercials, people!

[observantx]

My Lord. Are we so scared sh*tless that a few blinking lights cause this panic.

Boy, Osama sure did a great job. Now all the terrorists have to do is leave an empty box or a shopping bag in the middle of the street and we all wring our hands and blubber like little babies.

This is pathetic.

[Wesley_Mouch]

The Evil Moron GWB has created such a climate of fear and suspicion in this country that local officials overreacted to a harmless cartoon promo.

Is that what you ****wits really believe? It's as if you sit around playing Six Degrees of George Bush desparately trying to connect any negative incident to the Neofascists in the White House. If President Bush made a statement indicating his support for motherhood and apple pie, you loons would immediately decry it as insensitive to people who are allergic to apples and hurtful to couples who are unable to conceive.

Just a GD cartoon? Fine, then Hezbollah just needs to slap a Scooby Doo sticker on their IEDs and we can all ignore the danger.

Honestly, judging by the sensitive nature of the locations where these promo devices were placed, it's almost as if Turner Broadcasting is conducting a dry run for Al Qaeda.

[pdun1]

9/11 Was an Inside Job!

[panhandlpete]

It's ok for the authorities to plan a military exercise of having an airplane fly into a building in a city ( on 9/ll) without citizen awareness, but when an ad campaign lands two people in jail, you must look at the big picture.

Freedom has been lost in the quest for security. If these same ad boxes have been placed in other cities, why did Boston respond with such fervor? A law must be put on the books to cover such actions....oh, I forgot, it is covered in the Patriot Act. It's gonna come home to us more and more.

[mitdgreenb]

I have to disagree with the numerous posts that say, roughly, "It was just a joke" or "Don't blame us for your overreaction." Many of those posts also imply that this is somehow tied to failures of the President, etc.

Stop.

It's NEVER been OK to call in a false alarm. I learned that when I was about 5. It's NEVER been OK to shout "fire" in a theater. Hey, great prank, but people can get trampled and emergency crews might be diverted from a real emergency. The excuse that "it's just a joke" has NEVER been acceptible, not even before 9/11 and the war and this President. Freedom of expression has ALWAYS been balanced against public safety -- inciting a riot is a crime.

Guerilla marketing often is simply an attempt to avoid paying fees for advertising space. But one aspect of paying for a billboard is that the city knows it's an ad. Clearly the people who did this did not have the good graces to tell the cities ahead of time because ***gasp*** they might have to pay minor fines (like for littering). Now they are going to pay... and perhaps people will GROW UP a little.

[exusmcsgt]

Obviously, Boston is a city of paranoids.....

[xsoldier2]

Ignorance is bliss, if it wasn%u2019t a Hoax and no one done anything you would be complaining about them not doing nothing. Sorry you have been brain washed and are so radical that you can not be reasonable any more. To much mainstream media telling you what to think and you are enjoying it because of so much hatred

[Syndicate]

These people have a first admendment right! The devices obviously weren't bombs. Only a Fcuking idiot would think it was a bomb. Yea that goes for Boston's bomb squads too. Since there was no intent to pull a hoax no crime was committed. I hope the individuals arrested sue the city for wrongfull arrest. Oh if you think 911 was an inside job your about as stupid as they come. Ofcourse your intitled to your opinion regardless of how retarded it is.

[djberson]

They were not just boxes of blinking lights. They were box shaped circuit boards with exposed wiring and large battery packs. Placed under bridges and elevated highways. What would you honestly think they were??? The news reported (not here) that this is a MassArt student. I live one block from this college. The student body there seems to think they can do whatever they want wherever they want in the name of art. Students are consistently charged with graffiti in the neighborhood. This is an extension of that behavior. Lets put it this way, advertising costs money, and has its place on paid for billboards, airtime, newspaper copy etc. How would you like it if every advertiser did things like this?

[yoopermom]

Looks like alot of people are lacking common sense... The City for reacting the way it did and the marketing firm that came up with the bright idea. Now the ones paying are the people that were just doing their job in placing the %u201Ccute little cartoon%u201D. BTW%u2026Am I the only one that found it offensive that they could place a cartoon character that is flipping people off all over these cities? Isn%u2019t there some kind of regulation against that?

[beazly1]

Calling this a hoax only makes you look stupid. The poor guy didn't want to cause a panic with his light brite boards. I know the guy they arrested and I have seen the IED's minus the E(explosives) and that whole scare could have been prevented by the Boston police department having, at the very least a highschool education.
The blame for the hoax should rest on the shoulders of the Boston police department. They are the ones who started running arround yelling that the sky was falling. Its great that Boston responded so quickly and efficiently (two weeks later,)but if our government is ready to scramble the jets at a drop of a hat then they should be prepared to make some mistakes. We should start using the slogan; better safe than sorry, and just shrug this stuff off when it is obvious that there was no malicious intent.

[exusmcsgt]

djberson-

The most "dangerous" component of the devices was a battery. How much damage could an exploding battery cause in the unlikely event that one did explode?

You have hundreds of gas cylinders are oud every day on the freeway that could cause a hell of a lot more damage than an exploding battery. You want those prohibited, too.

How about tanker trucks full of gasoline?

Or train cars full of toxic chemicals?

Get real.

[thgdriver]

mgpm

The same stunt was played out in 9 city's some much larger and some smaller, why was Boston the only one to run around babbling " THE SKY IS FALLING".

I hope they don't allow those idiots to carry guns!!!

Boston turns out to be a city of keystone cops.

For a long time I could not figure out how Ted Kennedy and John Kerry wound up in our Senate, If the people of Boston are any measure of intelligence in Massachusetts I now have my answer.

[CBSTV]

Even taking into account the panicky nature of people, the response to this incident is way overboard.

[cmp271]

Boston had every right to react to this stunt! Time Warner should be made to pay for everyone's inconvenience. They should have let the authorities know they were doing this and placing these things in such obscure places. Why wouldn't they be thought of as bombs, why such odd places.
Doesn't anyone have any sense who are writing in their comments. Where are the other cities? maybe they aren's as conscruable a target as Boston is, or as important to our Nation's history.

[thgdriver]

Two or three bomb sniffing dogs could have put this to bed in an hour or so. This was poor police work at it's worse, and over reaction at it's best.

The city fathers should try to put the best spin they can on this and hope it all goes away soon.

The city is about to become the butt of every stand up funny man on TV.

Maybe their Senator Kerry knows a few jokes to tell.

[cmp271]

Besides, the guy in the picture looks like Charles Manson. Would someone give him a haircut please? No wonder it was believed to be bombs.

[exusmcsgt]

thgdriver-

I think all this ridiculous hoopla in Boston is the result of a police official with political aspirations trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill for self aggrandizement purposes.

[thgdriver]

When I first found out that the Keystone cops of Boston were running around closing down highways and "bridges", I just figured someone had reported seeing their Senator, Ted Kennedy, driving a car in town again.

[spindoctaz]

There are so many small minded people living in our amazing country. Yes, its true that 9/11 changed the way that everybody looks at things. And it should be that way. However, I think of myself as at least somewhat of an itelligent person. I can honestly tell you that if I saw one of these hanging around, I would think it was odd and amusing, but never would it come to my mind that it was a bomb. The funny thing is that on Rt. 93 south just outside of boston in Somerville Ma, there has been a billboard up with this same figure seen on the 'light brite' (without the middle finger). It has been there for at least 3 months.

One of the main things that everybody was saying right after 9/11 was that if the American people became scared, then the terrorist had won. I could be wrong, but being parrinoid and thinking that everything and everyone is out to get us is being scared. People need to sit back, chill out and have a sense of humor. People in Boston, chill out. YOU were the only city out of 9 that had ANY problem with this issue. Boston PD, bomb squad and Mass Government officials, shame on you for making such a big deal about all of this.

Love one another.

[orkid68]

i think this was made to make people laugh, not to scare them. it's a shame folks are getting so paranoid a guy can't do some edgy art without creating a scandal like this.

[orkid68]

i think this was made to make people laugh, not to scare them. it's a shame folks are getting so paranoid a guy can't do some edgy art without creating a scandal like this.

[djberson]

exusmcsgt, or should I say ding-dong, dont tell me to get real...or imply that I said or thought the devices were dangerous. But if your mother was in a car on top of a bridge, and you saw a peculiar object with wires and battery pack underneath, would you think nothing of it?? People need to use their heads (too much to ask for these days) and not put their art or advertising anywhere or everywhere they feel like. The bridges and highways are not their personal "canvas" for expressing themselves. Especially not with dubious looking electronic devices that look to many people alarmingly out-of-place.

[oleander8]

To all the posters who think this is no big deal...you have GOT to be fans of this bizarre cartoon network.

These guys didn't slap these things on a light pole, or the back of garbage truck. They put them where they would be MOST suspicious and generate the MOST publicity.

Boston is doing it's job to protect the city and they are doing it well. No fines for these guys - jail time.

[thgdriver]

When a city has this sort of over reaction, there should be a stupidity tax to pay. Boston could settle our national debt with the stupidity tax on just this one.

[exusmcsgt]

djberson-

My mother is intelligent enough to distinguish between a sign and a bomb, than you.

Perhaps your mother is not.......

[oleander8]

"My mother is intelligent enough to distinguish between a sign and a bomb, than you.

Perhaps your mother is not.......
Posted by exusmcsgt at 10:19 AM : Feb 01, 2007"

Is your dad bigger than his dad, too???

[mdc76082]

djberson, quit crying on your mamma's apron. the gov of mass & the mayor of boston are nothing more than glory hounds. they are the only state & city in this country to make as exusmcsgt put it a "mountain out of a mole hill". there was nothing wrong with it. it was fun. (hey maybe california can pickup on that and try to ban "fun") there was never any harm in it. it has nothing to do with the way the promoted an advertisment. people are scared of their own shadows anymore. there's a difference between being vigilant after 9/11 and living in pure fear. now a days people just live in pure fear. they need to be vigilant, but go about their daily routine without fear. jeez.

[drudge2]

The home of the brave has lost its way.

[dixiebobh]

Obviously many folks are boredn unemployed and made at someone.

Sad!

[mdc76082]

No dixie, some of us are retired and planned our lives accordingly and are now wealthy. what's your excuse?

[exusmcsgt]

Is your dad bigger than his dad, too???

Posted by oleander8 at 10:29 AM : Feb 01, 2007

I made the point that my mother is not so ignorant so as to confuse a sign with a bomb.

Apparently, djberson, considers that to be some type of super-human skill, so perhaps it's a generational view in their family......

[djberson]

exusmcsgt, you wrote "My mother is intelligent enough to distinguish between a sign and a bomb, than you."
Nice grammar. Did you inherit your writing skills from your "intelligent" mother??

MDC7602; you wrote "people are scared of their own shadows anymore." What is THAT supposed to mean?

[thgdriver]

Yeh, right, the terrorists are going to place their bombs out in the open where all can see and then attach flashing lights to them.

When I am out walking my dog with a flash light and carrying his shi! in a bag, in Boston, it looks like I could get shot as a terrorist.

[djberson]

exusmcsgt keeps showing off his inability to express himself. He wrote: "Apparently, djberson, considers that to be some type of super-human skill, so perhaps it's a generational view in their family......"
Whatever that means. Go get your caveman club and loincloth exusmcsgt so people will understand where you're coming from.

[thgdriver]

Watch out!! the grammar police here are about to shut down our freedom of speech.

[exusmcsgt]

djberson-

I should have ascertained that you need things presented in an elemental fashion to enable comprehension.