http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/09/MNG4SGKQ7K5.DTL

(01-09) 16:55 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- About 100 people were evacuated today and traffic on two busy San Francisco thoroughfares was rerouted after a Starbucks employee found a homemade bomb in a restroom.

The employee found what appeared to be a "suspicious device" inside the unisex bathroom at the Starbucks at Van Ness Avenue and Bush Street around 1:15 p.m. and called police, Sgt. Neville Gittens said.

Gittens would not describe the device or its size other than to say it "would have caused damage if it exploded.''

Don Henschke, sales manager at Ellis Brooks Auto Center across the street from the coffee house, said a police officer had described the bomb to him as "a portion of a flashlight and a fuse."

The bomb squad disabled the device in about 20 minutes, and witnesses said they heard a popping sound at the time.

Traffic on Van Ness and Bush was rerouted for about an hour and people were evacuated from the Starbucks, a neighboring sushi restaurant and a seven-story apartment building above the coffee house.

In 2003, police said the windows of 17 Starbucks were clouded with glue and some of the door locks were jammed. The vandals also posted phony notices purporting to be from Starbucks management announcing the company's intention to abandon some of their San Francisco stores to make room for more locally owned coffee houses.