Delco highway sign displays vulgar message disparaging the county
A sign along a Delaware County highway greeted drivers with a vulgar message Sunday.
The message blinked on the digital board on the shoulder of I-95 in Ridley Park through most of the day. It was eventually turned to face the sound barrier walls so that oncoming traffic didn't see it.
Officials said it's not clear who was behind the act and how they were able to hack the system.
Driver Terry Banet said she did a double-take of the sign.
"I was going south," she said. "I saw it immediately and said 'OMG, this thing was hacked!' and then I laughed."
The words talked about the county disparagingly.
"What is the meaning?" asked Jonathan Abdul Rahim King of Chester. "Why would someone want to do that?"
"Somebody has dropped the ball," said King. "Somebody has dropped the ball, this thing needs to be removed."
The offensive words were first spotted around 9 a.m., and it was all Delaware County residents were talking about hours later.
"I think it's hilarious and they should get better security for those for people not to hack into them," said Cassy Rokicka.
Mike Kines of Essington said the sign was immature.
"Freedom of speech, I guess," Kines said.
PennDOT told Action News the portable message board is for one of its road projects, but the sign itself belongs to one of its contractors, who is responsible for putting the words they want on the board.
PennDOT said it will try to find the culprit, as well as take another look at security measures so this doesn't happen again.
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