“The walk signal is on, fuck Trump,” the robotic voice could be heard saying in videos that went viral online over the weekend.
The voice also accused Trump of causing the deaths of children, a likely reference to possible U.S. responsibility for a strike on a school in the early days of Trump’s Iran war.
“I was surprised, I had to gather myself and think, ‘Did I really hear that?’” local resident Damian Meldgaard told CBS Colorado. “And then I was enamored. I loved it, it made my day, it was absolutely what I wanted to hear. I kinda wanted my own recording just for my own personal sense of self-satisfaction.”
The push-buttons on the crosswalk were new, “still bagged and with their factory settings that included a default password that we now have learned is easy to find online,” said Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Communications Director Nancy Kuhn, per JS.
The password has now been changed and officials “don’t expect a repeat situation at these locations,” Kuhn added.
Denver Police is investigating the incident.
Pennsylvania’s Harrisburg International Airport’s public address system was similarly hacked to play anti-Trump messages in October.
