SUVs and Trucks Torched in Los Gatos

The mangled steel frames and charred chassis of once-polished trucks, sport-utility vehicles and a van remain parked in rows at Anderson Chevrolet in Los Gatos on Tuesday, just as they were over the weekend when arsonists mysteriously struck the dealership.

``It's really just sad,'' said dealership employee Linda Banuelos, surveying the eight gutted vehicles in a rear parking lot. ``Who would do something like this?''

Tuesday, fire investigators were still searching for clues in an arson that conjured up images of last year's rash of SUV and Humvee fires at the hands of environmental extremists.

They have seen this pattern before: expensive, gas-rich vehicles falling prey to activists bent on destroying property they see as destroying the Earth. But unlike the car dealership arsons and vandalism around Los Angeles and in Santa Cruz, in which one group readily claimed responsibility, there was no such ``calling card'' -- graffiti or e-mails -- pointing to a perpetrator in Sunday's incident.

``There is really nothing that positively points to any specific group,'' said Santa Clara County fire Capt. Dennis Johnsen, the lead fire investigator. ``I don't have anything to positively say it's ecoterrorism.''

Officials with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said, at least initially, that it doesn't appear any environmental groups are associated with the Los Gatos fires.

Firefighters were called at 9:47 p.m. Sunday to the Chevrolet dealership on Los Gatos Boulevard where they found four vehicles engulfed in flames. The blaze quickly jumped among the tightly-parked rows of newly arrived 2005 trucks and SUVs, destroying eight vehicles and causing an estimated $250,000 in damage.

Johnsen said it appeared the arsonist poured a flammable liquid on the hoods of trucks parked in the center of about 30 vehicles in the rear of the property.

Anderson Chevrolet's general manager, Joe Hood, declined to comment, referring questions to AutoNation, a Florida company that owns the lot. Calls to AutoNation were not returned Tuesday.

Charlie Hanson who arrived at Anderson Chevrolet after purchasing a new Buick from the dealership next door, looked at the wreckage in disgust.

``It's a defenseless car being attacked,'' he said. ``It's senseless, this destruction of property.''

Hanson, who said he followed news of last year's vehicle vandalisms and arsons, believed it was unlikely anyone would be held accountable.

Johnsen said two Humvees were burned at a different Los Gatos dealership early last year, and in Santa Cruz, there are three unsolved cases in which SUVs were vandalized.


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