Decoy buses for capturing attackers targeting Apple, Google shuttles

San Francisco :  The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is using decoy buses in an attempt to catch shooters who are targeting charter buses that Apple and Google employees use.

There have been 20 shootings at these charter buses since January, according to ABC7 News.

“The weapon is thought to be a BB gun which is shooting pellets from a vehicle. The shooter has damaged windows, they have dented the exterior of the vehicles,” Ernest Sanchez, Golden Gate Division Commander, CHP was quoted as saying by ABC7 News.

However, the CHP has not disclosed possible motivations behind the attacks, though the growth of Silicon Valley companies has contributed gentrification in the area, causing spikes in rental prices and cost of living, according to The Verge.

In order to catch the culprit (or culprits), the agency is also, reportedly, getting help from the FBI, as well as offering a $10,000 reward in exchange for information about the person or people responsible.

Meanwhile, both the tech companies have been forced to reroute their shuttles, ferrying employees, after the vehicles were attacked with either pellet guns or rocks several times on the way to the office.

“The CHP reports that four Apple and one Google bus had their windows shattered by unidentified projectiles; the patrol suggests that they could have been rocks or bullets from a pellet gun,” Slate Magazine reported earlier in January.

IANS