(2007-02-01) Boston Bomb Scare Aqua Teen Hunger Force

The 2007 Boston Ma bomb scare occurred on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 after both the Boston Police Department and Boston Fire Department mistakenly identified battery-powered LED placards resembling the Mooninite characters of the Cartoon Network show Aqua Teen Hunger Force, as improvised explosive devices (IED-s)... Authorities responded with what the Boston Globe described as "[an] army of emergency vehicles" at the scene, including police cruisers, fire trucks, ambulances, and the Boston Police Department bomb squad. Also present were live TV crews with helicopters circling overhead and a large crowd of onlookers... Some devices had been up in the cities listed for two weeks before the Boston incident occurred, although no permits were ever secured for the devices' installation... The slender, placemat-sized items had dozens of colored lights, exposed wires and circuitry, and were powered by a row of D batteries wrapped in black tape. In other words, they looked like an upscale version of Hasbro's Lite Brite, a toy for artistic grade-schoolers... On February 27, 2007, just a month after the incident, the Boston police bomb squad responded again and detonated another object that they believed to be a bomb, but turned out to be a city-owned traffic counter... On May 11, 2007, the prosecutors decided not to pursue criminal charges in exchange for community service and a public apology.

2007-02-02-SchneierBostonSecurityScare