A construction sign outside an Illinois public library was hacked “multiple times” last weekend to display an anti-Trump message.
“On Sunday, on two different occasions, digital traffic signs used by a contractor to ComEd were hacked and profane messages were posted,” the city of Rockford said in a statement, according to WIFR.
“When the City received information about the first occurrence, we immediately alerted the contractor and they began work to secure their system. We are confident the contractor is working to avoid such incidents in the future.”
At one point, it read, “F*ck Trump.” The photo was edited by the news station.
The Rockford Register-Star reported Mayor Tom McNamara saw a different sign that read “REW Trump.”
The sign, stationed outside the Rockford Public Library for an environmental remediation project, was noticed around 7 am Sunday morning. “The matter was promptly addressed,” according to the paper.
“Regardless of anyone’s personal feelings, the language and the phrase is not appropriate, so we took it really seriously and got it down the second we were made aware of them,” McNamara told the Register-Star.
ComEd pointed to a subcontractor and said while there were security cameras at the construction site, “there weren’t any pointed at the digital sign boards.”
“The company disabled the modems that connect the signs to the internet and removed keyboards that can be used to manually change the displayed messages,” the paper wrote.
“This was a childish prank,” ComEd External Affairs Manager George Gaulrapp told the paper. “Unfortunately, the vulgarity of it was bad and we wanted to make sure we addressed it immediately as soon as we knew about it.”
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