UPDATE: Vandalized SUV Fixed

Gareth Groves received a lot of media attention after eco-vandals attacked his Hummer H2 in July. After $15,000 in repairs, he has it back, but he parks it in Maryland instead of in front of his Northwest Washington home. (By Lois Raimondo -- The Washington Post)

Gareth Groves has refused to bring his flashy gray Hummer H2 back to the Northwest Washington neighborhood where it was smashed this summer by vandals who left him a graphic pro-environmental message.

"I know if I left it in front of the house, I wouldn't get any sleep at all," Groves, 32, said of his 7-foot-tall, $38,000 sport-utility vehicle, which he had purchased about a month before the July 16 incident.

About 3:30 a.m., when the SUV was parked in front of his house in American University Park, witnesses saw two masked men take a bat to every window, a knife to each 38-inch tire and then scratch into the vehicle's body: "FOR THE ENVIRON."

D.C. police say the case remains open.

Some of Groves's neighbors in the 4300 block of Brandywine Street were sympathetic to his plight after it happened. But many on his leafy street sniffed that he got what he deserved for driving a gas-guzzler. The street is home to several Prius hybrid car owners.

The crime brought so much media attention that Groves became a bit of a local celebrity.

"A couple times a week now, when I go to the local Safeway or a restaurant, people ask me when I'm getting my truck back," Groves said last week.

Groves put his H2 in a repair shop, and it was fixed two weeks ago, he said. But rather than bring it back home, he's been parking it at a friend's house in Maryland for fear of the vandals striking again.

"It looks great," he said. "Better than it ever did."

He kept the "lift kit" and large tires on the SUV, meaning it sits higher off the ground than a standard model.

The repairs cost Groves a $250 deductible; his insurance company picked up the $15,000 in bodywork and other costs to make it look like new, he said.

Groves, who grew up in the District and works in marketing for a local radio station, said he wanted the SUV in part because he is starting a company, Washington Sports Marketing, that is "image-based."

He said he didn't mind that it took more than a month to get it fixed.

"I had nowhere to put it," he said. "I didn't need it back."

In the meantime, he's been driving his mother to and from work every day in his other car: a Dodge Charger with chrome rims. "It's kind of flashy, also," he said.

His mother is about to retire, so Groves is planning to move out of her home and into a house he just bought in Montgomery County, where he said he shouldn't have a problem parking the large SUV. He plans to move in about a month and then be reunited with his H2.

Just in case trouble visits him again, he said, he put an alarm system in the Hummer.

-- Allison Klein