2 Teens Busted in September's I-75 Billboard Porn Hacking Case

Back on September 28, someone hacked into an electronic billboard along Interstate 75 in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan, causing the video display to show a hardcore porn clip to passing motorists, turning the stretch of freeway into an adult drive-in—or, actually, drive-by—cinema for about 20 minutes. Surveillance cameras captured images of what appeared to be two young, white men whose facial features were mostly obscured with hooded sweatshirts and spectacles. But after more than three months, the two porn pranksters have been identified and arrested. The two alleged culprits are both teenagers, one 16 years old, the other 18. But police have not yet released the name of either accused billboard hacker. Auburn Police Department Lieutenant Ryan Gagnon said that the pair were apparently clever enough to identify the particular billboard in question as vulnerable to hacking. While most electronic video billboards are controlled from a remote location, the Auburn Hills display was operated from a laptop computer housed in a small shed beneath the roadside billboard. "That is unclear how exactly they thought about this or why they chose this, other than you can obviously see a shed underneath the sign and maybe curiosity piqued their interest whether or not they could get in, maybe that ran the billboard," Gagnon told The Detroit Free Press. "You look at any other billboard and there is no shed underneath it." The teens also appeared to be aware that the shed remained unlocked, because after employees working for the billboard’s owner, Triple Communications, were forced to remove locks to the shed that had frozen, they simply neglected to replace them. A six-foot fence around the shed had been previously damaged and had not been repaired either, allowing the pranksters to get past the fence and into the shed, where they remained for about 15 minutes starting at 10:49 p.m. on September 28—enough time, apparently, to load the porn clip onto the laptop that fed video to the digital billboard. The 18-year-old suspect has been charged with trespassing, according to a Detroit News report. The 16-year-old, who had no previous criminal record, has been placed in a juvenile diversion program. If he completes the program without incident, he will come out without any charges on his record. Photo By Auburn Hills Police Department