NEWARK, N.J. — Not quite the “War of the Worlds” broadcast of a Martian invasion, a Verizon “emergency” alert Monday that the company texted to its wireless customers still jangled some nerves and triggered hundreds of calls from concerned residents to local and state offices.
The company sent the alert to customers in New Jersey’s Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean counties, warning of a “civil emergency” and telling people to “take shelter now.”
But the message, meant to be a test, wasn’t labeled as such, Verizon later admitted.
Within about 90 minutes, the state homeland-security and emergency-management offices posted on Twitter that no emergency existed, but by then people had called a variety of local, county and state agencies to express their concerns.
The state Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness didn’t immediately return a phone message. A Verizon spokesman offered an apology from the company.
