Probe of blast at eBay's North S.J. campus yields few answers; site set to reopen Thursday
By Sean Webby and Kimra McPherson
Mercury News
EBay shut down its North San Jose campus on Wednesday, clearing the way for bomb-sniffing dogs and investigators, who still don't know who planted a powerful explosive that blew out a window and forced more than 1,900 employees to work elsewhere.
Nobody was injured in the Halloween night blast -- and other Silicon Valley companies were not put on alert. EBay expected Thursday morning to reopen the campus that also houses some of its PayPal operations.
The company received no threats before or after the blast, which happened about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in a landscaped breezeway outside the 100,000 square-foot, four-story building.
But the corporate target was so sensitive, the explosion so powerful and the bombing so rare in Silicon Valley that law enforcement from San Jose, the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and FBI converged on the campus.
After more than 24 hours scouring for clues, investigators had few answers. Was it someone intentionally targeting the Internet corporate giant, a techno-terrorist? Or was it a dangerous prank on a night known for smashed pumpkins and toilet paper attacks?
``It could have been a Halloween thing, it could have been kids, it could have been something larger,'' said San Jose Police Sgt. Nick Muyo. ``If it's a Halloween prank it's a sophisticated one.''
Bomb-sniffing dogs spent the day nosing around the office and other campus buildings, all emptied of its employees, and at eBay's headquarters on Hamilton Avenue. They found nothing suspicious.
And investigators said that there was no indication that the company had been warned or that the bomber had targeted any other place. No one had taken responsibility for the blast as of Wednesday night.
EBay officials said eBay and PayPal service was not disrupted. Many of the processes that keep the Web pages running can be handled from other locations, eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said.
Durzy said the company expected to reopen the campus Thursday and ``the safety and security of our employees is our top priority for us.''
Muyo described the source of the blast as a sophisticated explosive device that not only shattered a large, two-inch thick plate of safety glass, but blew over furniture inside.
``Whatever caused it was pretty strong,'' San Jose Fire Capt. Jose Guerrero said.
About 1,900 eBay employees work at eBay's North San Jose campus, which includes PayPal headquarters, technology staff, sales, marketing and the network operations center, Durzy said. Employees at that campus were invited to work at the company's other San Jose location or dial in from home, he said.
When PayPal employee Dan Hyder arrived for work this morning, he was told the office was closed and given a flier explaining what had happened. He walked around the site for a while after, taking photos of the investigators milling around the building where he used to work.
``It's bizarre,'' said Hyder, who now works in a different building and had already left work by the time the incident began Tuesday night.
Muyo said the timing of the explosion, at 7:34 p.m. when many people had already left work for the day, might indicate that whomever placed the device at the building wasn't looking to injure people.
Authorities received multiple reports of a smoke detector alarm sounding, Guerrero said, followed a few minutes later by multiple calls of an explosion.
When crews arrived, they found a 6-by-7-foot window had been shattered near a first-floor exit. The window's frame was bent and a light haze covered the area, Guerrero said. No flames, however, were visible, nor was there any other damage. Other debris was in the area, said Guerrero, who couldn't say exactly what the debris was.
Authorities have an idea about what may have caused the blast, Guerrero said, but he declined to disclose it. Muyo declined to say whether security cameras may have captured video footage from the site.
``We're not ruling anything out,'' said Muyo. Neither PayPal nor its corporate parent eBay received any threats prior to the blast, Muyo said.
``It was fortunate that no one was hurt,'' said Catherine England, an eBay spokeswoman.
From Google to Yahoo, other Silicon Valley corporations reported no similar threats or incidents.
Security experts said such dangers unfortunately came with the corporate territory.
``You're a target if you have a commodity that's of any particular value, whether it's home invasion or the CEO being kidnapped. It doesn't have to be a terrorist group, it could be the animal liberation front,'' said Forrest Franklin, direction of operations for Focus Group Consultants, Inc. in Carson City, Nev., who has worked as a consultant for several Silicon Valley companies. ``If you've got 3,000 people in your company, you've got 3,000 potential perps.''
Ken Silva, Chief Security Officer for Verisign, agreed that such attacks can come from disgruntled employees.
``It could also just be a random person who is disgruntled with the company,'' Silva said. ``It doesn't take much for among millions of people out there for someone to get angry.''
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Mercury News Staff Writers Elise Ackerman, Sandra Gonzales and Ryan Blitstein, Yomi S. Wronge and Leslie Griffy contributed to this report. Contact Sean Webby at
swebby@mercurynews.com.
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