Peter Berdovsky, 27, of Arlington, was arrested Wednesday on one felony charge of placing a hoax device and one charge of disorderly conduct, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said. He was hired to place the devices, she said.

Highways, bridges and a section of the Charles River were shut down and bomb squads were sent in Wednesday before authorities declared the devices were harmless.

Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time Warner Inc. and parent of Cartoon Network, later said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” a surreal series about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball.

Authorities are investigating whether Turner and any other companies should be criminally charged, Coakley said. It was not immediately clear Wednesday who might have hired Berdovsky.

“We’re not going to let this go without looking at the further roots of how this happened to cause the panic in this city,” Coakley said at a news conference Wednesday night.

Those conducting the campaign should have known the devices could cause panic because they were placed in sensitive areas, she said. Turner did not notify officials of the publicity campaign until around 5 p.m., nearly four hours after the first calls came in about the devices, she and others said.

Berdovsky was arrested Wednesday evening at his lawyer’s office, Coakley said. His lawyer’s name was not available, and phone number believed to be Berdovsky’s did not accept messages.

Berdovsky planted many of the devices, Coakley said, although he is charged in connection with just one. He is to be arraigned Thursday in state court. The law under which Berdovsky was charged allows the state to pursue restitution. Mayor Thomas Menino estimated the security scare may have cost the city more than US$500,000 (euro386,000).

At least 14 of the devices were found, and at least 24 more are still around the city, officials said.

“The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger,” Turner said in a statement.

It said the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in 10 cities: Boston; New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Atlanta; Seattle; Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; San Francisco; and Philadelphia.

“We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger,” the company said. As soon as the company realized the problem, it said, law enforcement officials were told of their locations in all 10 cities.

The marketing firm that put them up, Interference Inc., has been ordered to remove them immediately, said Phil Kent, Turner chairman. “We apologize to the citizens of Boston that part of a marketing campaign was mistaken for a public danger,” Kent said. Interference Inc. had no immediate comment.

There were no reports from police Wednesday of residents in the other nine cities spotting similar devices.

Authorities said some of the objects looked like circuit boards or had wires hanging from them.

The first device was found at a subway and bus station underneath a major highway, forcing the shutdown of the station and the highway.

Later, police said four calls Wednesday afternoon reported devices at the Boston University Bridge and the Longfellow Bridge, both of which span the Charles River, at a Boston street corner and at the Tufts-New England Medical Center.

The package near the Boston University bridge was found attached to a structure beneath the span, authorities said.

Subway service across the Longfellow Bridge between Boston and Cambridge was briefly suspended.

“Aqua Teen Hunger Force” is a cartoon with a cultish following that airs as part of the Adult Swim late-night block of programs for adults on the Cartoon Network. A feature length film based on the show is slated for release March 23.

The cartoon also includes two trouble-making, 1980s-graphic-like characters called “mooninites,” named Ignignokt and Err — who were pictured on the suspicious devices. They are known for making the obscene hand gesture depicted on the devices.

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