Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY -- Someone spread an anti-religion message Wednesday morning by tampering with technology, and the person used a construction sign to get the message across.
"That's just not something that you necessarily want to see every day, painted on billboards or even on construction signs like this," said Trent Christensen, who was driving north on Foothill Boulevard Wednesday morning.
The words in lights caught his attention. A road sign flashed a message that had nothing to do with construction.
"I just had to take a photo," Christensen said.
His pictures show the anti-religion message, displayed on the sign.
"It said: ‘It's official. God does not exist,'" Christensen said.
Ironically, the sign sits next to an LDS church building.
"Either someone did it as a prank or someone did it as a malicious attack on someone's theology," Christensen said.
Whatever the reason, many drivers saw it. Some called the Utah Department of Transportation's Traffic Operations Center, but they didn't give the correct address. So, by the time crews turned it off, the message had been flashing for several hours.
"You leave that question in your head: Who did it and how did they do it'"
UDOT spokesman Adan Carrillo admits it isn't that hard to break into a variable message sign.
"Once you get into them, you can type just about anything you want in them," Carillo said.
The sign on Foothill typically displays a warning to drivers to expect delays, while crews repave 1300 East to Sunnyside Avenue. UDOT says it's something that shouldn't be tampered with.
"It's very frustrating for us because we do just about anything that we can possibly do to make sure that all of our construction zones are safe," Carillo said.
Carrillo says this type of vandalism is against the law and doesn't happen often. He said this is the second time in the past five years.
UDOT is considering putting bigger locks on the signs and displaying them in well-lit areas to deter this from happening again. The department encourages motorists to report any suspicious activity.
------
Story compiled with contributions from Paul Nelson and Sandra Yi.
