As they entered the city, early morning commuters in Seattle were met with eerie signs.
An ominous message had been reprogrammed onto an electronic traffic message board, which is typically used to display information such as “right lane closed ahead.”
The sign at the intersection of southbound Aurora Avenue and Dexter Way said, “One less CEO, many more to go.”
The remark seems to be a reference to Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, who was shot last week in Manhattan. Since then, Luigi Mangione, a suspect, has been taken into custody; his writings reveal rage at the actions of health insurance corporations and corporate avarice.
Around 4:30 a.m. on Thursday, a KOMO photographer uploaded a shot of the sign; by the time the sun rose, the message had vanished.
The sign was being used by 601 Holdings LLC, a construction and development business that is constructing a hotel and apartment complex approximately two miles away at the intersection of Aurora Avenue North and Roy Street.
For the impending complete closure of Roy roadway at 601 Aurora Ave, this company holds a roadway improvement permit. A spokesman for the Seattle Department of Transportation, Ethan Bergerson, sent an email. Signage is part of their traffic control strategy to notify cars of the impending road closure in this area.
According to Bergerson, an SDOT crew was dispatched Thursday morning to inspect the sign, but the message had vanished by the time they got there.
The message board was rented from National Barricade, a local business that hires traffic control equipment, according to William Choi, a developer’s representative.
The sign has a keyboard for changing the message, but Choi claimed that it was locked. He added that no one at his company even knew the password, which is necessary to for the keyboard to function like a mobile passcode.
According to Choi, they simply inform National Barricade of their desired message on the sign, and the company programs it.
Choi stated, “We had no involvement in altering the display and are horrified by the message.” We’re not political.
At National Barricade, the person who answered the phone claimed to be unaware about it. A request for response from a firm manager was not answered.
This is not the first time a National Barricade sign has been used for foolish purposes. In 2019, an electronic message board in North Seattle was programmed to read Impeach the bastard just as Donald Trump s first impeachment investigation was beginning.
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