Mysterious TV Messages 'Terrorize' Black Family
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   FBI Probes Racial Slurs, Threats That Appear on Screens

   Sept. 21, 2000

   By Seamus McGraw

   SUMPTER TOWNSHIP, Mich. (APBnews.com) -- An African-American couple
   who moved to this rural community several years ago to escape the
   grind of the city have been terrorized by threatening, racially tinged
   messages that have mysteriously appeared on television screens in
   their home, federal authorities say.

   "We're investigating this as a civil rights violation," said FBI
   Special Agent Dawn Clenney. "I've never seen anything like this
   before."

   Charlotte and Judge Smith, who share their remote eight-acre homestead
   with their 13-year-old grandson, returned home from vacation last
   month to find that someone had tampered with their alarm system,
   authorities said. They notified police, who found no sign of forced
   entry, nor was there anything obviously missing from the home.

   But that was just the beginning of what authorities are describing as
   the oddest case of racial harassment they've ever encountered.

   Channels change, messages appear

   Within a few hours, the Smiths discovered that someone had taken
   control of their televisions, which are hooked up to both a nationwide
   satellite TV service and an Internet provider.

   Channels would change, seemingly without cause, authorities said. In
   the middle of the night, a television would mysteriously turn on at
   high volume.

   Then, authorities said, messages, apparently typed on some sort of
   remote keypad, appeared on the television screens in the family's
   living room and den. The messages contained racial slurs and threats,
   Clenney said.

   Authorities said that an enraged Charlotte Smith reported that she
   yelled at her television on one occasion, only to have a message flash
   across the screen reading, "Shut up, Charlotte."

   "The family has been terrorized," Clenney said.

   Perpetrator close by?

   Local police, unable to get to the bottom of the case, turned it over
   to the FBI. Federal agents inspected the house, the family's satellite
   dish, and reviewed tapes the family had made of the harassing
   messages, some of which seemed to indicate that whoever was behind the
   remote harassment was watching the Smiths.

   Bob Mercer, a spokesman for DirecTV, the satellite company that
   provides service to the Smith, said it marks the first time a customer
   has complained about harassing messages suddenly appearing on
   television screens. The company is cooperating with the FBI's probe,
   he said.

   "We want to get to the bottom of it," he said.

   Authorities suspect that whoever is taunting the family has been doing
   it from close by, perhaps by using a short-range remote keypad similar
   to those offered by WebTV.

   Seamus McGraw is an APBnew.com staff writer