One of the natural gas stations in unincorporated Pitkin County that was sabotaged Dec. 26. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
In more than two decades with the Aspen Police Department, Sgt. Rick Magnuson has been involved in only two other cases that rise to the level of the gas line sabotage that occurred here the day after Christmas and left thousands without heat.
The first was the string of violent armed robberies committed by a group of Aspen teenagers in 1999, while the second was the case of Aspen native Jim Blanning, who left four gasoline bombs disguised as holiday gifts around town on Dec. 31, 2008 before killing himself.
The Aspen Times
Seth Hulquist with Black Hills Energy turns gas on at a property on Main St. in Aspen on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. Hulquist and his coworker traveled from Nebraska after volunteering to help with the outage in Aspen. The command center gave a list of 54 properties to Hulquist to relight. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
A second reference to a radical environmental advocacy organization was found at another vandalized natural gas pumping site near Aspen, a police official said Tuesday.
However, it remained unclear Tuesday whether a member or members of Earth First! were behind the vandalization of three Black Hills Energy sites in and around Aspen on Saturday night. That act led to 3,500 residences going without heat and hot water
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