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Vandalism causes AT&T outages
Danville cut wires similar to San Jose incident

by Geoff Gillette

Danville police are looking for suspects in three separate incidents of vandalism involving AT&T junction boxes in town.

Sgt. Dan Hoffman said the first incident occurred April 2 at the box near the intersection of Greenbrook Drive and Paraiso Drive. The second occurrence was April 3 at the intersection of Town and Country Drive and San Ramon Valley Boulevard. The third was April 5 on Camino Tassajara and Ramon Road. In all three cases, the vandalism occurred at night, between the hours of 9:30 p.m. and 8 a.m.

Hoffman said that in all three incidents, wires providing television and high speed Internet were cut but no phone lines were severed. The outages lasted an hour or two and affected a few hundred business and residential customers.

The Danville Police Department is working with AT&T security officials on the case. It is not known if the incidents in Danville are related to a major attack in San Jose on April 9 that resulted in a massive service loss to thousands of customers. AT&T is currently offering a $250,000 reward for information regarding the San Jose incident.

Hoffman said that they are looking at all possible angles in the case, but he did say that the boxes were not broken into and that it takes a knowledge of the junction boxes and a specialized tool to get into them without causing damage.

Using information given by AT&T security, patrol officers will be detailed to potential target sites around the area in order to give them increased protection.

Hoffman suggested that residents who see work crews near the junction boxes be mindful of whether the crews are displaying any identification. Any suspicious activity should be reported to the police immediately. Call 314-3700.