San Francisco is one of 10 cities where cable television's Cartoon Network planted blinking devices as part of a publicity campaign that prompted a wave of road and bridge closures today in Boston, the network said.

San Francisco police said network officials had told them that 20 of the devices had been placed in the city and that all would be removed by tonight.

Authorities in Boston removed 10 of the harmless devices today. Cartoon Network, which is part of Turner Broadcasting, planted them to advertise a show called "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" that stars talking french fries, a meatball and a milkshake. The devices reportedly showed a character displaying a middle finger.

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In Boston, highways, bridges and a section of the Charles River were shut down before authorities said the devices -- some of which reportedly had wires hanging from them -- were harmless. Local and federal officials were livid and said members of the public were right to report the devices.

"These items were by a bridge, a metro station, a hospital, a government facility," said Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. "There's reason to be frustrated with the tremendous waste of resources that this stunt caused."

Before the devices were deemed safe, the homeland security office activated its national operations center. Agents "double- and triple-checked the threat picture, assessed anything that might be going on in other locations, and assured local law enforcement that we would be ready to assist in a moment's notice," Knocke said.