A suspect or suspects intentionally tried to shut down local electricity and communication services when they fired gunshots at a PG&E substation and severed two fiber optic lines in south San Jose early Tuesday morning, according to Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith.
And AT&T, the owner of the damaged fiber optic lines, announced late Tuesday night that the company is offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for cutting the cables.
The vandalism of the underground fiber optic lines in two separate locations along Monterey Road near Metcalf Road disrupted local phone services, starting about 1:20 a.m., Smith said Tuesday night.
Then about 20 minutes later, San Jose police received calls reporting shots fired near the PG&E substation on Monterey Road, also near Metcalf Road, Smith said. Investigators later determined those gunshots – from a “high-powered rifle” – inflicted damage to the electricity equipment at the power station.
Smith said it’s “just a preliminary suspicion” that the same suspect or suspects are responsible for both incidents, and detectives continue to investigate the vandalism.
“The reason we believe they’re related is geographical proximity and timeframe” of the incidents, Smith said.
No suspects have yet been identified.
The damage to the fiber optic cables – which were cut in two separate locations less than half a mile apart – disrupted some cellular and landline phone service for customers of numerous telecommunications companies throughout South County, according to authorities.
By early Wednesday morning, all phone services were restored in Morgan Hill and surrounding areas, according to George Ross, spokesman for AT&T, the owner of the vandalized fiber optic cables.
“Early this morning AT&T completed repairs to fiber optic cables cut by vandals in San Jose yesterday, and service is currently running normally,” Ross said in a statement.
The outage initially disrupted service to 911 dispatch centers – including Gilroy’s – but providers were able to re-route some lines to restore those services, authorities said.
For some, the lack of landline service was more of a disruption to commerce than communication, as retail businesses and restaurants depend on the phone systems to run credit card and ATM transactions.
At Rosy’s At The Beach in downtown Morgan Hill, service slowed down some due to the outage Tuesday night, which was busy, according to restaurant owner Rosy Bergin.
“We weren’t able to run credit cards like we’re used to, so we had to manually take the credit card information,” said Bergin, who spent about two hours Wednesday morning entering all the data on paper from Tuesday night into the restaurant’s computer system.
AT&T is offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect or suspects who cut the fiber optic lines.
“Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, AT&T’s networks were declared National Critical Infrastructures in recognition of their importance to the nation’s security,” Ross said in a statement from AT&T. “Anyone who tampers with, destroys or disrupts the company’s network or its components is in violation of federal and state laws. AT&T is assisting law enforcement to identify and prosecute those responsible.”
The vandalism at the PG&E facility did not result in any disruption of service, but will cause the transmission substation to run at “less than capacity” until the damages are repaired, according to PG&E spokesman Jason King.
The gunshots also caused a hazardous material spill that PG&E and County crews spent most of Tuesday morning cleaning, according to King. The gunshots damaged five transformers at the site, which as a result leaked oil used to keep the equipment at the substation cool.
Traffic on Monterey Road in the area of the substation (about eight miles north of Morgan Hill) was closed during the cleanup of the oil, authorities said. The cleanup continued as of Wednesday morning, according to PG&E spokesman Lynsey Paulo.
Smith said there is no doubt that all of the PG&E and fiber optic damage was done deliberately.
“We believe the person had knowledge of what was critical at the substation, and what to cut on the fiber optic cables,” Smith said.
She added that a fence surrounding the Metcalf Road substation had been intentionally cut open enough to allow at least one person to pass into the facility’s security perimeter.
PG&E staff reported to the sheriff’s office that the fence had been “breached” about 3:46 a.m. – two hours after the gunshots were reported in the area, authorities said. That’s when authorities noticed the damage to the transformers.
A similar act of vandalism happened in April 2009, when an unknown suspect or suspects cut a total of 10 fiber optic lines – also owned by AT&T – in San Jose and San Carlos. That incident resulted in almost a total loss of all landline, cellular and Internet connectivity in South County for nearly 24 hours. No arrests have been reported in that incident.
The sheriff said it is too early in the investigation to tell if there are any similarities between Tuesday’s vandalism and the 2009 incident.
