East Bay man arrested in attempted break-in at SLAC accelerator lab

MENLO PARK — An East Bay man was arrested Sunday night after he reportedly cut through a fence and was seen roaming the grounds of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, authorities said.

Deputies from the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office were called around 8:30 p.m. to the compound on Sand Hill Road in unincorporated Menlo Park for a “report of a suspicious person on the property with bolt cutters,” according to the agency.

Working from a description given on scene to deputies, they located a man who upon being spotted ran toward Interstate 280, the sheriff’s office said.

After cordoning off the area and deploying a police dog, deputies found the man hiding in shrubbery and arrested him, the sheriff’s office said. A search of the area recovered “numerous burglary tools” and a damaged security fence near where the man was first seen.

The arrested man was identified by authorities as Ronald Dale Simpson, 46, of Castro Valley. He was booked into the Maguire Correctional Facility Redwood City on suspicion of attempted burglary, vandalism, possessing burglary tools, and resisting arrest, and was being held in lieu of $25,000 bail, according to jail records.

Records also show that at the time of his arrest, he was the subject of two arrest warrants related to allegations of auto theft.

It was not immediately clear why the man was allegedly breaking into the 426-acre property, which contains what was originally called the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and continues to be run by Stanford University alongside the U.S. Department of Energy. The laboratory houses the Stanford Linear Accelerator, which at 2 miles long remains the longest such accelerator in the world.

Anyone with information about the intrusion or the man arrested can contact Deputy Collins at tcollins1@smcgov.org or at 650-363-4911. Anonymous tips can also be left with the sheriff’s office at 800-547-2700.