As If Things Weren't Already Bad Enough

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.

The culprit appears to favor Matilda Avenue, striking at least two
intersections there, and also has hit the signals at Caribbean Drive at
Twin Peaks not far from Highway 101, among other spots, Pilger said.

City officials began noticing the prank a little more than three months
ago while making routine inspections of the city's traffic signals,
Pilger said. Police have had little luck identifying the culprit, and
so decided to go public with their predicament in the hope an alert
motorist might catch the guy in the act and notify them.

Although anyone in coveralls and tool belt working on a traffic signal
would appear to be legit to the casual observer, Pilger said only those
crews with vehicles bearing the city logo or the tell-tale orange
Caltrans trucks are on the up-and-up. Anyone else is probably up to no
good, he said, and should be reported.

"There should always be a Caltrans vehicle or a city vehicle with the
city logo on it," he said. And while it might seem the city's traffic
department would be a logical place to start looking for the prankster,
Pilger said investigators have largely ruled that out.

"We don't have any reason to believe that" the culprit works for the
city, Pilger said. "I guess it's in the realm of possibility, but we
don't think it's likely. The traffic division is a small operation, and
we know everyone in there. We don't know who or why. That's why we're
asking for the public's help."

On 21 Jun 2005 12:09:09 -0700, , said the following in
rec.autos.driving...

> "We don't have any reason to believe that" the culprit works for the
> city, Pilger said. "I guess it's in the realm of possibility, but we
> don't think it's likely. The traffic division is a small operation, and
> we know everyone in there. We don't know who or why. That's why we're
> asking for the public's help."

Sounds like a disgruntled ex-employee of the traffic department (not
necessairly the traffic department of Sunnyvale) or some state department
of transportation.

Any manufacturers of traffic lights recently close a US plant and ship
the jobs to Mexico or China lately?

On 21 Jun 2005 12:09:09 -0700, wrote:

>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.
>
>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.

The problem is that the people who design these things never think
about security. Remember the little strobe lights that emergency
vehicles use to change the traffic signals to green? The people that
design the system and the municipalities that purchased it never
dreamed that some punk would buy (or build) their own strobe light and
abuse the system. Suddenly there was a huge uproar when they found out
that you could just buy one on the Internet.

This situation with the traffic signals is just the same. Since the
boxes are all keyed the same for the convenience of the workers, all
it takes is one punk with a copy of the key to create chaos.

Incredibly stupid. If there is a crash because the lights are effed up
and someone dies and this guy is later found to be the one behind the
"pranks" - he may face a murder charge. This is no joking matter.

i can't believe i'm saying it, but i think we all agree with that.

Dave

wrote:
> 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.

Too bad we can't ship him to Pleasant Hill to screw with that new
light that was designed to interfere with speeders.

Dave wrote:
> i can't believe i'm saying it, but i think we all agree with that.

I agree; this prankster should be buried under the jail. I don't give
two craps if he's a Bush, Kennedy, or other.