Mooninites in Boston

[masamuneehs]

Ok lets change this context a bit so your looking at what took place in abstract. Simply put people in a major population center wake up to strange electronic devices placed all over the city in heavy populated area's. I personally have watched ATHF and would not have recognised the figure. The cops getting calls reguarding these devices and being told they are all over the city. Consider that 38 of these were placed overall according to that artical and if any one of them was a bomb considering they were on busy bridges and in subways I don't think it was a over reaction at all.
Overall it was a reasonable reaction and if they had found a bomb then they would have been geniuses in foiling a terror plot.

you forgot one little tiny detail that makes your scenario implausible: According to the guys that were arrested in Boston, the ads had been in place for almost 3 weeks before anyone freaked out. That and 9 other cities, including NYC, didn't freak out at all. It's not like anyone "awoke suddenly to a world full of strange blinking lights in weird/potentialy threatening places"

edit to below:
many of the costs were from calling in extra police officers to block off areas while on-duty ones did normal duties. Lots of overtime paid as well. If they try to factor in the "damage" to the economy from shutting down some of the bridges and making major traffic, it's way more than $1 mil.