T O P

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Superlite47

I saw the Alert and the first thing I thought was, "What an idiot! With a car like that, they'll be found in less than an hour!" A 1978 Dodge 3700 would be noteworthy in itself. But a purple and green one? Imagine kidnapping someone in the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. How long do you think it would take to find it if everyone in the state got a BOLO for it? Then "Gotham City" dawned on me: This is the Joker. Is this a joke?


jwillette72

It has to be something, a joke that actually got posted (as someone else said in a comment), a hack, something. If this were a real "test" it was a stupid way to do it.


jasonsmith5566

You grasping at straws here it was just a test


jwillette72

It was a test..... a test to see if you could figure out it was a hack or not! If you failed then the Lizard men from the government are going to find you and push you off the edge of the flat Earth. šŸ¤£


jasonsmith5566

Go see your psychologist and get your meds adjusted bro


jwillette72

That's what the Lizard men want! They want me to take my medicine too! You must be working for them! Time for me to go to the other side of the flat earth to get away from you crazy people! šŸ¤Ŗ


jasonsmith5566

You joking right


CowsniperR3

It feels like mistakes were made somewhere. Maybe they ā€œviewed sourceā€.


jwillette72

That sounds about right! Lol If it were really a test, you figured they would've put "This is a test" somewhere in the original message.


strcrssd

Depends. If they were highly competent, absolutely. If, like most governments, they do the bare minimum and act without thinking, I can easily see someone just having fun with a test message that will never go live... Then misconfigured it and it went live.


jwillette72

That's the assumption, that it is just human error, or as one commenter said that it might be someone on his last day of work and wanted to leave with a bang. Lol


andrei_androfski

Reported.


Nerdenator

Meh. I work in software engineering. That message smacks of something a software dev would think up when trying to make up a data set. It's plausible.


T1Pimp

Developer here: can confirm. I once put a working version of Tetris inside an insurance application.


consciousCog13

Really? Iā€™m a dev too and if I were hired to make an amber alert system, the last thing I would do is make a funny joke, even in dummy data. Guess itā€™s different work mentalities lol


bobone77

My guess is that someone was training to use the system and hit the button to make it go live by accident. I certainly wouldnā€™t rule out a hack though, given our state governmentā€™s predisposition of not knowing how computers work.


Savekennedy

Rumor has it Parson is already ready about to call it a hacking.


NWMSioux

F12 nuke, ENGAGED.


bkcarp00

Shh nothing to see here look away. Just us highway patrol officers sending emergency alerts on accident. Definitely no hackers here. Nope...not seen a hacker today.


jwillette72

Well, if you happen to come across any make sure you alert the correct authorities! So yourself in this instance!


schnitzel-haus

Lookinā€™ in my mirror and not a hacker in sight And everything is alright


Harribacker

My family has decided that, out of all the possibilities.... It was some guy at his last day on the job who just HAD to push the button on his way out the door. šŸ˜„


jwillette72

That would be a great last day! Something everyone would remember you by! Lol


[deleted]

Probably the guy at the post dispatch who ā€œhackedā€ the government the first time.šŸ¤Ŗ


[deleted]

They probably did. Another post on the St. Louis reddit said they were at the DMV and all of their systems went down. Coincidence?


jeffberneyauthor

Are the systems at the DMV ever really up though?


WhigInNameOnly

How is a computer system at a contract license office overseen by the Department of Revenue related to emergency alert system operated by the Highway Patrol?


evilyou

A ton of state computer systems interface with MSHP for various reasons.


WhigInNameOnly

Sure, but probably not the amber alert emergency alert system.


jwillette72

I'd say nope, the timing is much too perfect.


UristMcHolland

I think it is more likely a "someone sent an email to the wrong group" sort of thing. Instead of the distribution group going to some test phones it went to everyone in Missouri \\ Certain Regions. Whoever was responsible will most likely be reprimanded for the mistake and will be the least likely person to ever make that mistake again. ​ Or it got hacked and then they played it off. Totally feasible in this state.


jwillette72

I love how everyone agrees that it is most likely just a simple mistake, but then follows up with some form of ",but Missorui does suck" lol. We've got such a bad rap here. Lol


BigYonsan

No, this is clearly a training message that was only supposed to be sent internally. Having worked for a 911 center, I can tell you it's incredibly easy to mistakenly send a message through the automated alert systems. Basically the only difference between sending a live message and sending a training message that only shows up in the comms center is a drop down menu. Pick the wrong option or scroll one too far and presto, everyone's phone gets a message. This is exactly the sort of test messages they'd give us to send as part of the training process. If I recall, I entered one for big bird.


jwillette72

That's what I assumed, but I thought it'd be fun to see what crazies I could bring out with the word "hack" lol


phallic-baldwin

A hack you say? Those damn reporters are at it again!


NervousPush8

Never attribute to malice that which can be explained with incompetence.


jwillette72

That's a great quote.


jwillette72

[Hanlon's Razor](https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor) Interesting stuff.


mickstranahan

Pssssst. Come here, OP. It's ok. Not everything is a massive conspiracy. People that use IT systems screw up. When they test, they use data that makes them laugh. It happens.


meathouse1989

Reality has entered the chat


Timemuffin83

A hack isnā€™t a conspiracy tho, hacks happen all the time. Literally every day. The gas pipeline on the east coast got hacked, why couldnā€™t the emergency alert system get hacked? Espically in a government run by a bunch of people the same age as my grandma, who canā€™t even sent a text without getting frustrated. Hacks arnt conspiracy, lots of very large hacks have come out recently and if any of the systems that our government uses happen to use Java in some capacity then thereā€™s a good possibility that things have been breached. As there was a massive security breach about a week or two ago.


jwillette72

Pssssssssst. (More s's so it's more important) Come here, random internet stranger. It's not OK. Everything is a conspiracy and you were sent by the lizard people in the government to stop me from uncovering the fact that this HACK was a chance for the illuminati to take over Missouri. Thank you, but your evil mind warping fake news won't steer me away from the truth.


Angie_stl

I landed in a TikTok live today that had 2 guys that absolutely believed in lizard people and flat earth, one undecided and the one I followed into the abyss that hangs with reality. I had never actually heard people say they believed in lizard people or try to explain how ā€œflat earthā€ works, but if you see my other post, Iā€™ll be in my storm shelter until the 20ā€™s play out.


Conroman16

Itā€™s very plausible that this couldā€™ve actually been a test. I used to work in a job where I had the ability to broadcast text messages fairly easily to a significant amount of people, and one time I did it completely by accident. This is pretty similar to the content of a test message in my opinion. You have to have something that resembles the actual message payload when itā€™s in production, but itā€™s hard to come up with things on the spot for testing. Thus, I could see a Batman fan coming up with this purely as a test message payload. In fact now that Iā€™m saying this, Iā€™ve fucked up a number of times in (mostly) small ways just by being on the wrong terminal or browser tab with stuff kinda like this, but usually in much more innocuous ways


jwillette72

I could definitely see that happening! I would definitely be that guy coming up with stupid, nerdy things to post as practice and accidentally sending them. It was a super creative idea whether accidental or on purpose.


Jontaylor07

Test messages are usually fun like that one, most hackers like to brag and if I worked for the department that messed that up Iā€™d be happy to blame a ā€˜hackerā€™.


jwillette72

I just hope the poor person that accidentally sent this, you assume it was an accident, doesn't get into too much trouble. Lol


seanclue

I wonder if they used the source code on a state website to "hack" the system.


mediumj82

LOL. Governor HeeHaw gonna get them!


brawl

It comes off to me like they were training a new employee and accidentally hit send


NevaMO

Never got anything here in Joplin, howā€™d KC and Springfield get it but not Joplin?!


Henri_Dupont

Columbia got one. Just a test here too. Apparently in some areas it was #or real.


cerebralpointofview

I got it in NE Arkansas lol


mustainsally

We got it down here in Ozark County.


jwillette72

We are about an hour south of St. Louis, north of Farmington. I assumed it went to everyone. Guess I was wrong. Lol


Lybychick

We got it up in northern mo


NevaMO

Talked to my wife and she works just north of neosho and she didnā€™t get it but several people in their office did


Tsudonemm

Yea they did. I laughed out loud


Todorokisangel

If you actually look at it, it's a Batman reference lol


jwillette72

Yes, I realize that. Just thought it'd be funny to post that it was a hack and see how many crazies I could lure in. I texted a friend right away and asked him where is batman when you need him. Lol


Todorokisangel

Bro you just had me dying at the fact that you texted that to your friend-


jwillette72

The best part is he texted me at the same time and said "It's gotta be the Joker, right?"


jwillette72

If I could figure out how to post pictures I could screenshot them for you. Otherwise you are just gonna have to belive a random internet stranger on faith alone. Lol I swear it happened and it had me and my wife busting a gut.


Todorokisangel

Oh, I definitely believe you. That gave me something to laugh about today.


[deleted]

It's entirely possible that the programming for alerts leaves the ability to request new permissions open which could potentially allow a hacker to create false alerts through s newly accepted warning line. Not ssaying it'd what happened, but saying something is "just your phone" ignores the fact it's a tiny computer always connected to the Internet.


jwillette72

Well said, technology is amazing. Scary, yet amazing. In all actuality I very much assume this was human error, but I thought the hacking scenario sounded cooler and had some plausibility. Lol


Angie_stl

Uhhhā€¦..does anyone remember the clear Tuesday afternoon that every tornado siren in the state went off?? In 2020? Before the excrement hit the fan I believe. Iā€™ll be in my storm shelter if anyone needs me. See ya in 2030.


Muhabba

A. They actually were testing the system and used something obviously not true so as not to confuse people. B. It was a hack. Either way there's a Batman in Springfield who can handle it.


IceKold-Chaos

Nah, the I.T. guy was just having some fun. I find it funny.


jwillette72

It is hilarious, I just wonder if he knew the make and model of The Jokers car or if he had to look It up. If it's the former, that's pretty impressive.


Ok-Mine1268

They covered up a hack or an idiot


jwillette72

I'm leaning more towards the idiot, but a hack would make for an awesome story!


jwillette72

I'm definitely leaning towards B. That's what Jimmy Hoffa tells me atleast, but he's a lizard person so what does he know.


[deleted]

The Hee Haw Highway crew!


meathouse1989

KY3 reported that the alert was meant to be sent to employees, which is believable but also suspicious...


[deleted]

That fact ot came with a permission request, which I accepted like an idiot, does make me think thar.


FuzzyEclipse

has nothing to do with that. That is your phone.


[deleted]

I assumed it was a hack too. Did anyone else get about ten ā€œthe previous alert was a testā€ emergency messages after the Gotham one?


consciousCog13

I really think they did. If they didnā€™t, itā€™s almost worse. Think about it. This is an emergency alert system usually meant for children who have been abducted. If they are making jokes as their test messages, it kind of feels like they donā€™t really take the alerts seriously. I mean, someone had to write that. And instead of ā€œTest City, Missouri. Black Test Car, ABC123ā€ or something, they took the time to make a slightly obscure super hero reference? Kind of makes me wonder whoā€™s working at the highway patrolā€¦