Sunnyvale traffic signal prankster on the loose

[lateo]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/06/21/BAprankster21.DTL

Police in Sunnyvale are keeping an eye out for a highly skilled and frustratingly elusive prankster who has been tampering with the city’s traffic lights for more than three months, authorities said today.

Whoever is behind the shenanigans has kept a low profile and drawn no attention to himself -- or herself -- while surreptitiously turning traffic lights around to face the wrong way, tampering with control boxes so the lights flash red in all directions and throwing the timing off to stymie motorists, said city spokesman John Pilger.

"There is evidence that whoever is doing it knows what they're doing," Pilger said. "The evidence suggests they're an electrician or have that background. This isn't a high school prank."

Further puzzling investigators is the fact the traffic trickster used a cherry-picker truck to reach an overhead signal spanning a busy intersection -- apparently without anyone being any the wiser, Pilger said. What's more, the practical joker has effortlessly opened the control boxes that contain the signals' electronic guts.

"No one's seen anything and they've obviously blended in, and they have a key to the traffic boxes," Pilger said. He noted that such keys are not proprietary to the city, so a key that works elsewhere probably works in Sunnyvale.

[Newsjock]

1. Watch out for those Al-Qaida traffic engineers!

They'll muck up your evening commute!

[uppityperson]

8. Good one. n/t

[rocktivity]

2. Prankster? He's a vehicular murderer in the making.

And I suspect he's a disgruntled ex-employee of some kind.

I came home from work a few months ago to find the traffic light a block from my house broken--luckily it wasn't completely dark. I figured it would be fixed that night, but when I left for work at 7:30 next morning, the light was still out--and there was a smashed car in the intersection! When I got to work, I called city hall. Guess they didn't want to pony up the overtime--heck, it was only rush hour. If I were that driver, I'd have gotten my insurance company to sue the city!

:headbang:
rocknation

[MazeRat7]

3. I'll bet it IS a high school prank.

They make it sound like "traffic signals" are complicated electrical devices to be serviced by "authorized personnel only".... *LOL

Gezzzzz...

MZr7

[TrueAmerican]

4. Yup

High school kids are smarter than they give credit too.

[MrPrax]

5. Sunnyvale?

Maybe it's one of these guys

[thatgemguy]

9. It's Cory and Trevor

Those guys get no respect.

[enigmatic]

12. Ha!!

I figured it was Ricky myself...

[Straight Shooter]

What if someone has an emergency and is on their way to a hospital?

The delay of being caught in traffic congestion due to traffic lights not working could mean the difference between life and death. This tampering with traffic lights isn't a prank. It's criminal.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. Another city traffic light technician laid off in the bush economy?

[democracyindanger]

7. Not in this story is that he also shuts off the audible crossing signals

intended for the blind and elderly.

[high density]

10. Sounds a bit like the public works department in my town

The public works department and the water company go around town digging up pavement and destroying the inductive loops for the traffic signals and then nobody ever fixes them. It has really screwed up the traffic patterns but nobody that can do something about it seems to care.

[Say_What]

11. Probably an MEE who got laid off in the Silicon Valley bust

eom

[pinniped]

13. People that F with traffic control devices deserve to get the book...

thrown at them.

In 1997, three idiots in Florida removed numerous stop signs and got three people killed. Another so-called prank.

The news also reported that the Sunnyvale assclown tampered with the pedestrian signals. Nice way to get someone killed.

The news is not going to be calling this turd a prankster when someone gets rubbed out.

[truthisfreedom]

14. weird and dangerous!

what a nutjob!

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

15. Those CofC guys will stop at nothing to keep

shopper's eyes on store windows!