An Unsafe Box: A True Crime Case

Peter Karasev was a senior machine learning engineer at Zoox, Amazon's autonomous vehicle subsidiary, earning $250,000 a year. He held a PhD from Georgia Tech. In December 2022 and January 2023, he bombed two PG&E electrical transformers in San Jose, California, using homemade explosives delivered by bicycle in the middle of the night.

Investigators found approximately 300 pounds of explosive materials, a grenade in the refrigerator, unsecured firearms throughout the house, and flash powder scattered on the laundry room floor. The home was a $1.5 million residence across the street from a high school, shared with his partner and three children ages five, three, and one.

Karasev was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty. The government sought 12.5 years. The case was prosecuted as United States v. Karasev, 5:23-cr-00364-BLF in the Northern District of California.

A geofence warrant returned a single device present at both bombing locations within a six-minute window. Digital evidence, surveillance footage, and text messages — including one to his partner reading Bike ride / getting rid of unsafe box — connected Karasev to the attacks.

The bombings destroyed two PG&E transformers and cut power to surrounding neighborhoods. Fifteen households on Medical Baseline — meaning residents depended on electrically powered life-sustaining medical equipment — lost power before anyone knew the outages were deliberate.

The Peter Karasev PG&E transformer bombing case (2022-2023) involved a highly educated Amazon engineer who built and detonated homemade explosives targeting electrical infrastructure in San Jose, California. No podcast had previously covered this case. The episode is built from 78 federal court documents including sentencing memoranda, the indictment, and DOJ press releases.