A housing site on Scotts Valley’s Green Hills Road was hit by vandals last weekend, wreaking havoc on more than 15 pieces of heavy construction equipment with a mysterious powdery substance.
All the earth-movers and tractors at The Meadow at Falcon Ridge development along Highway 17 were rendered inoperable by the vandalism.
The substance was leaked into the engine block, gas or hydraulic lines of the equipment sometime between 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14, and 7 a.m. the next Monday, Scotts Valley police Lt. John Hohmann said.
“It’s evident from physical evidence at the sight that there was more than one person involved” Hohmann said.
The substance the culprits used is not easily identified, so police sent samples to the Department of Justice crime lab and should have the results in a few weeks.
Property owner Chris Perri of Apple Homes Development took his own sample to a lab separate from the police investigation and was told the substance is powdered granite, possibly combined with some sort of liquid.
Hohmann said the police have been in talks with University of California, Santa Cruz, regarding similar acts of vandalism and that two field representatives from the FBI, who were in the area for a separate matter visited the station Tuesday to review the report.
“The FBI contacted us because of a possible connection to eco-terrorism due to the nature of the crime,” Hohmann said.
Eco-terrorism is a term used when an environmental group targets a site that it deems environmentally unfriendly. No group, in this case, has claimed responsibility.
Perris said he thinks it’s a case of mistaken identity or just summertime boredom.
“This is as eco-friendly a development as you can get,” Perri said. “If it’s related to UCSC, it’s a mistake.”
The construction company reported the vandalism Monday morning after a worker tried to start one of the machines, to no avail, hearing only sputtering noises.
Workers quickly found that all of the site’s earth-movers and tractors had been tampered with.
Hohmann said the act set back construction a few days and that the extent of damage is about $500,000, though it could be more after further assessments.
The development was approved by the Scotts Valley City Council last May and is slated to be completed later this year or next.
Construction of the homes will begin in October, with four homes already in escrow, Perri said.
The plans include 16 two-story homes between 3,000 and 3,800 square feet in size that will take up seven of the 48 acres. The rest of the land will be dedicated as open space, which Perri said will feature wetland ponds and groundwater recharge.
“This project has been widely accepted by the community,” Perri said. “I think if someone had a grudge, we would have heard about it by now.”
Investigators ask anyone with information regarding the vandalism to call the Scotts Valley police tip line at 438-8090. They also ask the community to call 9-1-1 to report suspicious persons and vehicles at construction sites and residential developments.
• Contact Press-Banner reporter Michelle Camerlingo at 438-2500 or mi******@pr*********.com.
