Just in time for another Super Bowl, the FBI and Arizona police may finally have a break in one of the most embarrassing cases of cable tampering on record.
Authorities said they believe a former cable employee, Arizona resident Frank Tanori Gonzalez was responsible for interrupting the 2009 Super Bowl on Comcast Cable in the Tucson area and broadcasting pornography for 37 seconds.
The humiliated cable company ended up giving its 80,000 Tucson-area subscribers a $10 credit on their bill -- which comes out to a whopping $800,000 for their woes.
Even worse for already scarred Arizona fans at the time, Pittsburgh clinched the victory, beating the Cardinals 27-23.
"These charges related to the 37-second X-rated pornography interruption of Comcast's Tucson 2009 Super Bowl broadcast and as a result of the alleged tampering to its servers, Comcast suffered significant economic losses," Attorney General Tom Horne said in announcing the arrest on Friday.
After the incident, Comcast told reporters it had boosted its security and left the FBI in charge of the investigation.
According to reports, Gonzalez was a Cox Cable employee at the time of the prank.
"As we suspected, the interruption of the 2009 Super Bowl in Tucson was an intentional, malicious act," Comcast Corporate Affairs Manager Kelle Maslyn told KOLD-TV.
"After our internal investigation proved our technical and security systems were working properly, we turned our investigation over to the FBI. We appreciate the FBI's diligence in thoroughly investigating the programming interruption and determining what happened."
When we heard about this news, I heard my 12 year old brother whispered "I'm going to be a cable guy when I'm older" with a sly smile.
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