15 years ago, the Mooninites from Aqua Teen Hunger Force shut down Boston

polygon.com:

At around 8 a.m. on Jan. 31, 2007, the worlds of surreal late-night comedy and post-9/11 War on Terror came crashing together in Boston. That morning, the Boston Police Department bomb squad’s answered a call from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), which was now on alert. The MBTA was responding to a passenger’s call about a sign they had noticed in Sullivan Square, near Mystic River.

The caller reported a set of flashing glowing lights in a strange shape — what appeared to be a middle finger. Within hours, the police had closed off parts of the I-93 highway and the MBTA, and the reports of the placards started popping up all over the city. Several of the city’s main traffic arteries, like the Longfellow Bridge and the Boston University Bridge, were cordoned off. So were the Red and Orange lines of the MBTA’s subway. Soon, local agencies began coordinating with the federal government, and the U.S Coast Guard blocked passage on the Charles River, cutting off access from the Charles to the Boston Harbor.

It wasn’t until 2 p.m. that a member of the Boston Police who had some connection to pop culture recognized the odd shapes on the placards. The weird glowing squares weren’t bombs, they were Mooninites. More specifically, they were advertisements for Adult Swim’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Eventually referred to by city and state officials as a hoax, Massachusetts College of Art student Peter “Zebbler” Berdovsky and his friend Sean Stevens were arrested by the end of the day.

“It’s a hoax — and it’s not funny,” then-Gov. Deval Patrick said.

Zebbler and Stevens disagreed, and attempted to highlight the absurdity of the situation when released on bail the next day by only answering questions about