Internet access and 911 service trickled back to residents during the night, which passed with no major incidents, police said.
As the sun rose after a disorienting day without ATMs, texting, e-mail and credit cards, extra police officers returned home and shut down the city’s emergency command center, and AT&T upped its bounty from $100,000 to $250,000 for the phone line bandit or bandits, whom the FBI and San Jose and San Carlos police departments are still searching for.
“Multiple suspects is a likelihood, but it’s hard to say at this point,” said Richard Cinfio, a police commander in San Carlos, where four fiber optic cables were cut about 3:30 a.m. Thursday.
Six additional lines were cut at two spots in San Jose about 1:15 a.m. Thursday, according to police and an AT&T spokesperson. It was this act of sabotage that primarily caused a massive cell phone, land line and Internet outage in the South Valley that left residents without communication and businesses operating on a cash-only basis. The severed cables in San Carlos contributed to the service interruption, said AT&T Spokesman John Britton.
In San Carlos, the saboteur or saboteurs hit two separate locations, pried off manholes in the middle of the street and climbed into the wet underground pathways to snip essential AT&T lines, Cinfio said. Police are looking into potential footage from red light cameras near the two manholes, but it will be a week before police know if video exists. As of yet, there were no “solid leads,” Cinfio said.
“It was clean cut straight through,” Cinfio said of the truncated cable he saw dangling underground, something that definitely required more than scissors but probably nothing elaborate or motorized, he said. Removing the city’s standard street manhole simply required a crowbar and some muscle to pry off, Cinfio said, but Britton said removing the heavy seal takes a more a specialized tool.
When police catch whoever did this, penalties could include vandalism charges, restitution payments or worse if someone suffered from the incident. Santa Clara County District Attorney Spokesperson Amy Cornell nodded to the likely vandalism charge but otherwise declined to speculate.
“Since the case is still under investigation, and we have not reviewed the evidence, we are not in a position to speculate about what would be charged in this specific case.”
All told, 52,214 Verizon landline customers lost service in southern Santa Clara County, and customers of Verizon Wireless and Sprint wireless – which also rely on the AT&T lines to convey conversation to their networks – also could not make calls until the evening. T-Mobile and AboveNet customers were also affected, as were Verizon Wireless users in southern Santa Clara County and from Watsonville to Scotts Valley in Santa Cruz County, according to a Verizon spokesperson.
By 8 p.m. residents out running errands and eating at restaurants generally reported a return to normality. That included 911 service, which came back online about the same time. Dispatchers spent the day answering phones through the department’s business line, but they could not see time-saving caller ID information that normally comes through. The return to full operation relieved the doubled shift of officers patrolling the streets throughout the pre-dawn hours.
“Everything went fine – nothing big happened,” Sgt. John Sheedy said.
Phones at The Dispatch were still acting up Friday morning, but lines at City Hall and businesses around town seemed to work fine. The coming days will also likely tell if the downed lines left someone without critical help. Saint Louise Regional Hospital representative Jasmine Nguyen did not return messages Friday, but the hospital rescheduled elective surgeries Thursday and had an extra ambulance outside thanks to the county.
