A man angry because he believed Google was always watching him, launched a violent attack against the search company’s building in the sleepy town of Mountain View, California.
Raul Murillo Diaz shot out windows at the search engine company’s building and tossed a Molotov cocktail at a Street View car, reports The Mercury News. Street View vehicles are Google-branded cars equipped with cameras for taking Google Maps and Google Earth images.
Diaz is charged with committing a series attacks in May and June on the company’s property. Allegedly, he threw several Molotov cocktails at the Street View car. The auto was not damaged, but police found broken bottles and scorched ground near the car.
He is also accused of shooting out several windows at the company’s satellite office in June. In his last attack, it’s believed he set fire to a self-driving car.
When arrested, Diaz told the police that Google was watching him and that made him upset. He also kept a journal tracking when he believed he was under the Silicon Valley company’s surveillance.
Held without bail at the Santa Clara County Jail, Diaz faces 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
This is not the first time Google has been part of a violent or scandalous news story. In 2014, Forrest Hayes, a Silicon Valley executive who was part of the team that created the company’s self-driving car and Google Glass, was found dead aboard his yacht. Hayes died from an apparent drug overdose. The news got stranger when it was revealed that a prostitute, Alix Tichelman, was with Hayes the night he died.
Tichelman was eventually arrested and charged with injecting Hayes with a fatal dose of heroin and then coldly watching him die. She was sentenced to six years in prison.
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