Timeline of Earth Liberation Front Actions - 2003

2003

• January 1, 2003, Girard, Pennsylvania: Jugs of gasoline were set under three vehicles at Bob Ferrando Ford Lincoln Mercury and set ablaze. Two pickup trucks, one Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) and a car were destroyed causing $90,000 in damages. The ELF claimed responsibility for the attack.

• January 20, 2003, Seattle, Washington: Arson at a McDonalds caused $5000 worth of damage. In September, 2005, Christopher W. McIntosh of Maple Shade, NJ, admitted he set the fire by pouring several gallons of gasoline on the roof on behalf of ALF-ELF. In an anonymous phone call he said:

here was an E-L-F-A-L-F hit at McDonald's across from the Space Needle. There will be more. ... As long as Mother Earth is pillaged, raped, destroyed. As long as McDonald's keeps hurting our furry brothers, there will be more.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison.

• March 21, 2003, Superior Township, Michigan: Two luxury homes set on fire in a Superior Township housing development in an action against urban sprawl. Claimed by the ELF. Damages estimated at $400,000.

• March 28, 2003, Montgomery, Alabama: Five government vehicles were vandalized and one truck was set on fire at a Naval Recruitment Headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama. The ELF claimed responsibility for the attacks both in a communiqué and by spray-painting their initials at the scene. Messages that read, "Stop the War," "Stop killing" and "Leave Iraq" were also found along with the ELF initials.

• April 8, 2003, Santa Cruz, California: The ELF claims responsibility for vandalizing 65 SUVs, including about twenty private vehicles as well forty at the North Bay Ford and Lincoln Mercury car dealership. Messages are spray-painted on the vehicles denouncing the war in .

• April 15, 2003, Santa Cruz, California: ELF activists attack 15 SUVs with bright orange paint, and in an ELF press release, complain that the local paper did not cover the story.

• June 3, 2003, Chico, California: ELF claims the attempted arson of a new home. The fire burns through a PVC pipe holding water, dousing the flames so the damage was minimal, about $100. "Save our bio-region ELF" is painted on the sidewalk.

• June 4, 2003, Macomb County, Michigan: ELF sets fire to two luxury homes in a Macomb County housing development in an action against urban sprawl. "ELF" and "Stop sprawl" are spray painted on nearby construction equipment. Damages estimated at $700,000.

• June 5, 2003, Chico, California: An arson attempt is made at a shopping center under construction. Workers find remnants of several small fires, and ELF spray-painted on the door of a work truck at the site. The FBI explores connections with arson attempts at two McDonalds in March, and SUVs in May, in Chico.

• June 14, 2003, Santa Cruz, California: Environmental activists scratch the slogan ELF into ten new SUVs, causing $15,000 worth of damage.

• July 2, 2003, South Windsor, Connecticut: Signs of the Earth Liberation Front, "ELF" and "no sprawl," are spray-painted on a newly completed. An unidentified man called police and said the graffiti was done by an ELF activist.

• August 1, 2003, San Diego, California: A 206-unit condominium being built is burnt down causing damage in excess of $50 million. A 12-foot (3.7 m) banner at the scene reads "If you build it, we will burn it," signed, "The E.L.F.s are mad." — sympathizers often refer to themselves as "elfs" or "elves".

• August 22, 2003, West Covina, California: The ELF attacks several car dealerships in east suburban Los Angeles, burning down a warehouse and vandalizing several cars, with such phrases as "I love pollution" written on the cars. All told, more 125 SUVs and Hummers, which were targeted due to their lower than average fuel efficiency, are damaged or destroyed causing $2.3 million in damages.

• August 29, 2003, Fairbanks, Alaska: ELF spray-paints concrete walls and construction equipment at a construction site.

• September 4, 2003, Santa Fe, New Mexico: ELF action against SUV dealer in New Mexico - SUVS spray-painted with messages naming the seven deadly sins. 1/3 of the dealership's stock was marked, leaving thousands of dollars in damages.

• September 12, 2003: Federal agents arrest Pomona, California resident Joshua Thomas Connole in connection with the August 22nd 2003 Los Angeles area arsons. Apparently, the FBI profiled Connole based on his anti-war protest activities. He is soon released due to lack of evidence. The FBI later awards Connole $100,000 and agrees to give him an apology after he files a lawsuit against the agency.

• September 19, 2003, San Diego, California: ELF action against urban sprawl at three separate construction sites in the upscale Carmel Valley neighborhood of San Diego, causing an estimated $1 million in damages. Four unfinished houses were destroyed, two others were damaged and a condominium under construction sustained minor damage. A banner at the site of the first fires read, "Development = destruction. Stop raping nature. The ELFs are mad."

• September 22, 2003, Martiny, Michigan: The ELF claims responsibility for planting plastic bottles containing flammable liquid at an Ice Mountain Spring Water Company (a subsidiary of Nestle) pumping station. The devices are apparently intended to start a fire at the premises but are discovered by maintenance workers before they are set ablaze.

In a written statement, the ELF stated:

We will no longer stand idly be while corporations profit at the expense of all others. To this end, we have taken action against one of the pumping stations that Perrier uses to steal water… Clean water is one of the most fundamental necessities and no one can be allowed to privatize it, commodify it, and try and sell it back to us.

Two months later a judge orders the company to halt pumping water from the wells. Nestle had been removing 200 gallons of water from the ground per minute and was lowering the water table.

• October 6, 2003, Jemez Mountains, New Mexico: Construction equipment belonging to the US Forest has electrical wires cut, tires cut and windows broken by ELF.

• October (mid), 2003; Portland, Maine: The Acadian Green Brigade of the ELF slashes the tires of 8 Boise Cascade delivery trucks and two trailers, glued locks and painted slogans across the building's main entrance.

• October 24, 2003, Martinsville, Indiana: ELF activists sabotage a Wal-Mart construction site. Survey stakes are removed, and walls and machinery spray-painted. Over a dozen pieces of heavy machinery and vehicles are vandalized, with slashed tires, cut fuel hoses, and sand poured in fuel tanks.