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Motorists Treated to 30-Minute Adult Film on Hacked Billboard on I-75

This may seem like the most hilarious prank, but only if you’re about 12 years of age. Two young men broke into a shed and “hacked” a billboard to display an adult film, which ran for 20 to 30 minutes.
Suspects who hacked into shed to get illicit content on highway billboard in Detroit, Michigan 5 photos
Photo: clickondetroit.com
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The “prank” could have had disastrous consequences, Auburn Hills police say for Click On Detroit. Given the nature of the material displayed and the fact that it was displayed on a giant billboard above the highway, serious accidents could have happened because motorists became distracted.

Luckily, this wasn’t the case, but the police still want to catch and punish the culprits. To that end, they have released surveillance video from inside the shed that housed the laptop that connected to the billboard. The “hack” wasn’t exactly that: the two simply uploaded the material onto the laptop, from where it played on the billboard.

The incident happened last weekend, at the I-75 and M-59 interchange, in the Detroit, Michigan suburb of Auburn Hills. The video played for up to 30 minutes and caused quite a commotion on the highway. Police were flooded with calls and rushed to take the illicit content off the billboard.

“In this particular incident, we had a local billboard basically run by a system onsite that is not staffed, which creates the perfect storm for someone to access it,” Auburn Hills police Lt. Ryan Gagnon says for the media outlet. “We want to seek the public's help in identifying these two people, but also to contact us. What turned out to be maybe a prank became a little more serious by breaking into a building.”

To the Detroit Free Press, Gagnon says an incident of the kind has never happened in Auburn Hills – and hopefully never will. This was a “huge distraction to drivers and obviously obscene and inappropriate. It was dark out, so the screen was glowing really bright.”

Should the suspects be caught, they face a 90-day jail sentence and / or a $500 fine for promoting and disseminating adult content. They could also be charged with breaking and entering or destruction of property, depending on the conclusion of the police investigation.
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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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