WEST COVINA, Calif. (Sept. 13) - Federal agents arrested a 25-year-old man for investigation of arson and vandalism that caused $1 million in damages last month at a Hummer dealership, police said.

Joshua Thomas Connole, of Pomona, was arrested at home early Friday, said Cpl. Rudy Lopez, a West Covina police spokesman.

Fires that broke out Aug. 22 gutted a parts warehouse and destroyed 20 Hummer H2 sport utility vehicles at a West Covina dealership. Another 20 Hummers and several Chevrolet Tahoe SUVs were badly damaged by fire and spray-painting.

Three other dealerships and at least four privately owned vehicles in the area also were damaged during the vandalism spree.

Words such as ''ELF,'' ''Fat, Lazy Americans'' and ''I (heart) pollution'' were painted on the SUVs.

''ELF'' stands for Earth Liberation Front, a loose association of militant environmentalists. The group, which has taken responsibility for other acts of arson and vandalism, claimed in an unsigned e-mail that the SUV fires were ''ELF actions.''

Lopez said it had not been determined whether Connole belonged to the group.

Connole was booked for investigation of felony arson and vandalism, Lopez said. He was being held at the West Covina Police Department with bail set at $825,000. Arraignment was set for Monday.

Lopez said the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were continuing an investigation of federal crimes, which would be added to Connole's state crimes charges.

The FBI after the arson and vandalism spree released surveillance video from a Ford dealership in Duarte that showed two young men spray-painting SUVS.

 

Stringing him up by his left nut would be a good start.

 

ELF = Evil Looney Fu*ks.

Since an ELF is a terriost they should be treated like all other known terriost. Ask no questions of them and shoot them on site “Click-Click BANG” that will make the world a much better place…

 

Stories like this expose the arrogance, ignorance, or just plain stupidity of these people.

I havn't seen any studies on this but I have to think the toxic gases and pollution released by one vehicle fire would exceed a lifetime of engine exhaust run through a state of the art emmissions control system that removes 99% of the pollutants.

Have you noticed some of the biggest opponents of SUV type vehicles fly on private jets to thier appointments? A quick check of a Cessna Citation shows a range of 3300 miles on 13,000lbs of fuel (1926 gallons for 1.71mpg) That's about one trip from New York to LA for a book signing. An SUV, even at 15mpg (which most do better than that), could go 28,890 miles on an equivalent amount of gasoline. That's enough to go all the way around the earth, and a jet engine has very little in the way of pollution controls compared to an automobile.

The same people who scream we need to develop alterative fuels and alternative sources of power are also the first to scream "Not in my backyard!" when a developer wants to build a windfarm or cleaner burner efficient power plant.

Arggggh! Thanks a lot H for getting me stirred up first thing in the morning. Ok, I'll go try to calm down now

 

I say stick his mouth on an exhaust pipe of a f-150.......then sitck the tailpipe up his ***......

ELFs can suck my **** as far as I'm concerned.

I should go get job where I dealerpships near me from ELFs.........give me a nice f-150 with a few guns like a Missle Launcher, two ak-47, two uzis, and of course a few hundred genernades.

 

Ya'll are too nice your methods would kill quickly. I'm thinking female Rotweiler in heat, hancuff their hands to their ankles and turn them loose in a 10'x10' pen with 2 male Rotweilers. Let's see how much they like nature when everything is said and done.

 

I am sorry these ELF morons are no better than osama and saddam (SP?)

they are worthless, arrogant, immature, spineless, brainwashed (by the media) probably have rich parents, spoiled, need to be treated the same as Alquieda (However the heck you spell it!!) scumbags!!

we need harsher punishments not more laws against this sort of thing.

Grrrrrrr!!!!!!

 

And... here in California we have one their biggest supporters running for Governor . Can you say "Ariana Huffington " . What worthless piece of human flesh.