X-Rated Freeway Billboard Is Work Of 2 Michigan Teens: Police

AUBURN HILLS, MI — Motorists tooling along Interstate 75 and Michigan 59 near Auburn Hills couldn’t unsee the pornographic photos and videos that flashed on a giant electronic billboard last fall, and now one of two teens police say are responsible has been charged.

The X-rated images didn’t just momentarily flash before the porn plug was mercifully pulled. The body parts went on, and on, and on — for about 30 minutes because, well, no one was quite sure how to shut off the suddenly sexual sign.

Auburn Hills police told news station WJBK that they caught the porn purveyors from a different kind of video: surveillance images from Sept. 28, 2019, that showed two people breaking into a storage shed where controls for the billboard are located. That clip led investigators to an 18-year-old from Sterling Heights and a 16-year-old from South Lyon. Their names weren’t disclosed.

Police said the younger teen changed the billboard to display pornography, although he isn’t facing any charges. Instead, he’s going through a juvenile diversion program. The 18-year-old didn’t enter the sign maintenance shed but was charged with misdemeanor trespassing, according to the WJBK report.

While videos of the freeway peep show blew Twitter up with sophomoric humor, Auburn Hills Police Lt. Ryan Gagnon told the news station at the time “it’s just not that funny playing pornography on a billboard.”

“Could you imagine seeing something like that — trying to focus on the road and you see this?” Gagnon said. “It certainly could cause a distraction.”

No surprisingly, authorities were barraged with 911 calls. An Auburn Hills police officer saw it, “so the immediate reaction was, ‘How can we turn this thing off?’ ” Gagnon said, adding that the billboard owner was eventually contacted.

This is one of the tamest images shared on Twitter:

As it turns out, hacking electronic signs is kind of a thing.

A road sign in Whitley County, Kentucky, briefly flashed “send nudes” Thursday, prompting state transportation officials to quickly reassure residents they’re not interested in receiving nude photos. A contractor is doing roadwork in the area, and its password-protected electronic sign was hacked, authorities said.

Amber Hale, a Kentucky Transportation Cabinet spokeswoman for District 8, which includes Whitley County, told the Courier Journal that electronic billboard hacks have become increasingly common around the country and it was probably only a matter of time before central Kentucky was hit. Whoever changed the sign would have to have been at the construction site to change the message, she said.

“We were notified this morning that the message was ... different," Hale told the newspaper. "We contacted (the contractor) and sent them immediately down to confirm it, they confirmed it, and they immediately turned the message board off."

Here are a few more incidents: