A group of clumsy woke protestors drilled holes in hundreds of SUV tyres in an attack on ‘fossil fuel death machines’, not realising they were actually damaging electric vehicles.
Activist group Sabotage Oil for Survival targeted the Land Rover Truro dealership in the village of Scorrier, near Redruth, while other campaigners vandalised cars across Bristol and Exeter.
The group, who are based in Cornwall, posted to social media in the early hours of Monday, February 17, boasting that they had drilled into the tyres of 100 Land Rover SUVs.
But shortly after posted the video to X, Vertu Land Rover Truro’s Head of Business, Wayne McNally, confirmed the group’s major error, saying: ‘You’ve drilled through tyres on fully electric cars!!!’
Despite the embarrassing blunder, a father-of-two said he took part in the action because ‘SUVs kill kids’.
He added: ‘They pollute our air and they are an enormous contribution to global heating.
‘We’ve seen the wildfires in California, the floods in Valencia and the storms hitting the UK. The climate breakdown is here.
‘I can’t sit by and let these fossil fuel death machines threaten our children.’
Activist group Sabotage Oil for Survival drilled holes in hundreds of SUV tyres in an attack on ‘fossil fuel death machines’
Shortly after they posted the video on X, Vertu Land Rover Truro’s Head of Business, Wayne McNally (pictured), confirmed the group’s major error by saying they had drilled holes in EVs
They targeted the Land Rover Truro dealership in the village of Scorrier, near Redruth (pictured), while other campaigners vandalised cars across Bristol and Exeter
The group says it is a non-violent, covert sabotage campaign with the goal of sabotaging UK infrastructure and systems which support the production, development, distribution and burning of fossil fuels.
They also ‘fundamentally reject’ the idea that property damage to fossil fuel infrastructure is violent.
Instead, the group claims the ‘simple reality is that dismantling the fossil fuel regime is necessary to avoid the violence of climate collapse’.
The campaigners said the action came after 2024 was declared the hottest year on record, breaching the 1.5 degree limit agreed upon by world leaders at the Paris Agreement in 2015.
A spokesperson for the group said: ‘Transport is the biggest emitting sector in GB, cars are the biggest part of that sector. SUVs are the biggest and worst polluting cars.
‘Over 62 per cent of new cars sold in GB last year were SUVs. SUVs are bigger and heavier than other cars, they are more polluting and use more fuel. This makes them a disaster for our climate.
‘Despite advances in fuel efficiency and electrification, the trend toward heavier and less efficient vehicles such as SUVs, which emit roughly 20 per cent more emissions than an average medium-sized car, have largely nullified the improvements in energy consumption and emissions achieved elsewhere in the world’s passenger car fleet in recent decades.’
Devon and Cornwall Police has confirmed it is aware of the incidents in Exeter and Scorrier and said it is currently seeking information from any witnesses.
A spokesperson for the force said: ‘Police are seeking information regarding criminal damage to a number of SUV vehicles in Exeter and Truro.
‘The incidents happened at Vertu Motors on Matford Way, Exeter and Cornwall Business Park, Truro on Monday, February 17.
‘If anyone has witnessed anything, has CCTV or doorbell camera footage that captures anything suspicious in regard to this, please contact 101 quoting 50250041245.’
