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If you happened to be driving around Oregon this past week, you may have noticed some interesting sites on the Oregon Lottery billboards: furry cats!
Hijacked by cat pictures
The LED screens on about seven Oregon Lottery billboards had to be shut down this week after they were taken over by a mysterious furry animation.
Oregon Lottery spokesperson Melanie Mesaros said the LED screens are designed to show the current Powerball jackpot amount, according to KOIN. However, Mesaros said the hijack took place in seemingly random locations. The affected billboards were in Coos Bay, Albany, and Portland between August 12 and 14. There were also roughly four affected billboards in the Portland area.
Mesaros said, “We are working with our vendor to resolve an issue related to the digital display on our billboards.”
Reddit for the win
Thanks to Reddit user “HanginWithMrPooper,” everyone got to see the cats taking over. The user recorded one of the affected billboards near the intersection of 68th Avenue and Halsey Street in Northeast Portland.
The video shows the billboard with furry artwork of cats in a passionate embrace playing on the billboard's LED screen.
Matching artwork could be found on X for furry artist @SH_4RK. On their X account, replies to their posts show similar simultaneous billboard takeovers occurring around the country, to the artist's surprise.
A global issue
The affected billboard seen in the video is owned by Meadow Outdoor Advertising and paid for by the Oregon Lottery. However, neither party was responsible for the unexpected art display, they said.
The third-party vendor Daktronics, which operates the LED sign, was the reason for the issue. Mesaros said they contacted Daktronics regarding the issue and all of the billboards were restored on the night of August 14.
Mesaros said, “This was a global issue for the vendor Daktronics, which operates the LED screens.”
While Meadow Outdoor Advertising owns the affected billboard, manager Betsy Hege told KOIN that they have no control over the billboard's LED screen.
Hege said:
Full digital screens are the responsibility of the owner-operator, but the LEDs like this are controlled by the client. We all work hard to prevent hacks and have protocols should it happen.
Next up, there will be a meeting in the coming days to discuss the issue between Meadow Outdoor Advertising, the Oregon Lottery, and Daktronics.
Hege stated:
We will have a good debrief with the Lottery and Daktronics to understand what happened. Meadow works hard to be a good neighbor, so we are saddened that our signs were displaying the furry image.
No hacking here
While the billboards were hacked, there was no hacking involved for a recent Oregon Lottery winner. Denise F. of Turner has a lucky number (3), and she has put it to good use recently.
She likes to play Video Lottery about three times a week. On July 3, she said she only had about three minutes to play. She made those three minutes work in her favor, as she ended up walking away with more than $20,000 in winnings!
She recently made her way to the lottery headquarters to claim her prize. Now that she has the money in hand, Denise said she plans on taking a trip to Vegas. While there, she definitely needs to be betting on her lucky number!
Enjoy playing the Oregon Lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.
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