Vandals damage SUVs

Sports utility vehicles were the targets of unusual vandalism in Bloomington last weekend. Nine vehicles were splashed with a white powder substance suspected to be acid, destroying windshields and causing thousands of dollars in damage, the Bloomington Police Department reported.\nThe unique vandalism shocked both SUV owners and the police who received the reports.\n"It is kind of strange that someone is vandalizing cars with acid," said BPD Sgt. Jeff Canada. "Most car vandalisms are done with keys to the paint or finish of the car, or windows are broken."\nJunior Nikki Taylor's SUV was parked at Third and Grant Streets. She noticed it had a big splatter of a white crystalline powder on her windshield and hood when she returned to it at around 1:45 a.m. Saturday.\n"I originally tried to clean it off with Windex, and when that didn't work, I took it to the car wash," Taylor said. "I tried scratching it off, and it didn't come off either."\nAll the attacks occurred within a 24 hour period.\n"When I placed my report, I told them (BPD) what happened, and the woman said to me 'let me guess, you drive an SUV don't you?'" Taylor said. "When I was driving home from the carwash, I saw another SUV driving towards me that had the exact same thing. There was also another Jeep parked where I had been the night before that also had it."\nTaylor said when she asked BPD about any leads, they told her they suspected the violence was caused by the Earth Liberation Front. \n"The police said they thought at the time that it was members of a group called ELF, an environmentalist group that had come through town," Taylor said.\nBPD, however, would not confirm that the ELF was involved.\nELF has been blamed for SUV vandalisms during the last year when a Land Rover dealership found its cars covered in graffiti in New Mexico and SUVs were defaced with spray paint in Arkansas.\nJunior Valarie Schweitzer's Honda CRV was parked behind Alpha Phi on Third Street when it was damaged.\n"At first I thought it might have been mud," Schweitzer said. "But when I tried to get it off, it wouldn't come off at all. Now my entire windshield has to be replaced."\nSchweitzer said the vandalism to her car was upsetting.\n"I've only had my car for two weeks," said Schweitzer. "I bought it myself. When I called the auto glass place and they told me my windshield had to be replaced, I started to cry."\nSchweitzer and Taylor are only two of the victims whose cars have been defaced, but several other calls were made to BPD reporting similar incidents.\nCity Glass and Paint Inc., in Bloomington repaired one of the windshields of an acid SUV vandalism.\n"The windshield was almost completely covered (with acid), making visibility very hard," said Michelle Parker, City Glass manager. "The damage depends on the particular car, but in this case, the windshield itself is about 200 dollars. Acid can eat through the body, the paint and destroy the body of the vehicle."\nParker said if the vandalism was done by an environmentalist group, its choice of damage made little sense.\n"If it is them, it's kind of ironic," she said. "All of the glass that they are damaging is automotive glass - there is no way to recycle that. It all goes into the landfill, so really, they'd be defeating their own purpose."\n-- Contact staff writer Mallory Simon at mgsimon@indiana.edu.