A man who told police he feared surveillance by Google has been arrested and charged with arson after he destroyed a self-driving car from the company during an attack in June.
Raul Murillo Diaz of Oakland was stopped by police after Google security spotted him driving around the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, after midnight on June 30. Security was puzzled because his car had been spotted at a scene linked to multiple attacks on the company about six weeks ago.
The first, which occurred on May 19, involved some Molotov cocktails thrown at a Google Street View car parked at the company's Mountain View location. The ensuing fire didn't destroy the car because the bottles gelled on it, but the ground around it burned.
The second incident occurred late on June 4 when someone fired shots at the Google building in Mountain View. Police found five holes in the windows and damage to the frames.
Surveillance video captured both incidents.
The third incident occurred on June 10th in the middle of the night when a man in a similar car used a water gun to set fire to a Google self-driving car. The car was destroyed by the fire. Further linking these three crimes, the driver had parked in the same spot as the original incident and was in a similar car.
After stopping him on June 30, officers found a homemade bomb in the driver's car along with firearms. The bomb squad said the bomb was in a non-functional state but only needed a detonator or flammable material to become fully operational.
In a filing in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, prosecutors said that Diaz admitted to carrying out the three attacks and that his motivation was the belief that “Google was tracking him.”
The arson charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years and a maximum fine of US$250,000.
