SoCal man arrested in $1 million arson fires at SUV dealerships

WEST COVINA, Calif. (AP) A 25-year-old man was arrested Friday by FBI agents 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 about 12:30 a.m., 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 significantly 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 previously has taken responsibility for other acts of arson and vandalism, claimed in an unsigned e-mail that the SUV fires were ``ELF actions.''

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.

Glad they got the bad guy ... even a lifetime of work for this guy wont make up for $1 million in damage he's done. This is homegrown terrorism, so I hope he pays dearly.

We're not going to get anywhere near a lifetime of work out of this punk. He probably won't see the outside world for another 20 years or more.

Which is just fine with me.

I hope they drove him to jail in an SUV.

The estimation of damage is way too low. I wonder why.

The cheapest Hummer available, the H2, has a base price of $52,000. No doubt many of them had options that pushed them over $60,000. At the base price, the damage would be a tad over $1 million.

The story also said a parts warehouse was gutted. Let's conservatively guesstimate the value of the building at about $200,000 and the destroyed parts at somewhere around $100,000.

Then, there were 20 other Chevy Tahoes and Hummers that were signifigantly damaged.

All together, this probably adds another $500,000 to $1 million to the total damage.

KCBS 2 did an interview with the ELF weenie who torched the SUV and Hummer auto dealerships in West Covina in August. Ladies and gentlemen...

...THIS is the pimply face of the fascist radical environmentalist movement. It's the kid you used to beat the snot out of in high school. He's mad, and he's gonna take it out on those eeeeeeeeeevil SUVs, since they don't hit back. Yup, with all of the rage in his 94 lb. frame, he's going to FIGHT pollution by torching buildings and sending billows of black smoke into the night sky, cuz America must pay for causing his pain, by goddess!

Not surprisingly, Screech here claims he was arrested without being advised of his rights or advised of the charges against him. Sure you were. Look, the cops around here are so afraid of the ACLU, they don't so much as take a piss in a public restroom without reading the urinal puck it's rights. You want your rights, Beavis? You have the right to remain stupid. If you choose to give up that right, we would appreciate it, but I'm not holding my breath.

"Like, I didn't do it," he says. "Look at the tape; the guy who did it, he's, like, wearing Nike sneakers, and I would never wear Nikes, cuz they run sweatshops overseas!" Well, there we go. Case closed, let the punk go, he's Perry freaking Mason. They've got a crystal clear shot of his face setting H2s and buildings ablaze, and he thinks his Air Jordans are gonna get him off the hook. But see, he's a good guy, since he puts down Nike's "sweatshops".

No big surprise here. These losers use concern for the environment as a pretext to serving their own self-interest. Incompetent misfits like this know they don't have the intelligence or the education to compete in a capitalist society so they have to do what they can to undermine that system.

There's probably also an element of jealousy. A stupid punk like this knows he'll never get an SUV by flipping burgers. So if he can't have one, the next best thing is to destroy them so others can't have them either.

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