Suspicious Packages Prompt Bomb Scare

Several suspicious packages found in the greater Boston area yesterday prompted a bomb scare that shut down Longfellow Bridge and parts of Interstate 93.

The hysteria eased, however, when investigators discovered that the packages were in fact part of an outdoor Turner Broadcasting marketing campaign. The network had placed the packages to promote Adult Swim’s animated television show, “Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” according to a statement from Turner reported in The Boston Globe. The statement said the packages were “magnetic lights that pose no danger.”

The first of the packages was discovered at Sullivan Square in Boston and was destroyed by authorities, officials said. Not long afterward, a report of a suspicious package attached to the underpinnings of the Boston University bridge led investigators to a package containing what was described by one officer as an “electronic circuit board with LED lights attached.”

At around 1 p.m. yesterday, calls from concerned citizens began flooding law enforcement offices and several more packages were found, officials said.

The packages were found in locations ranging from a comic book store on Harvard Street to the New England Medical Center.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, along with Massachusetts Governor Deval L. Patrick ’78 and Police Commissioner Edward Davis, held a press conference at the Unified Command Center in Boston, where the mayor urged citizens to “treat suspicious devices with care.”

Davis said that those responsible for placing the “devices” could be subject to a prison term of two to five years for each planted device.

Menino said last night that he was “prepared to take any and all legal action against Turner Broadcasting and its affiliates for any and all expenses incurred during the response to today’s incidents,” according to the Globe.

Turner Chairman and CEO Phil Kent, in a statement released to The Crimson last night, wrote, “We apologize to the citizens of Boston that part of a marketing campaign was mistaken for a public danger...As soon as we realized that an element of the campaign was being mistaken for something potentially dangerous, appropriate law enforcement officials were notified.”