6 JULY 4-10, 2024 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | from wolf reintroductions to sports rivalries. Laramie County even took a shot at Denver in May, erecting a controversial billboard in the Mile High City to recruit employees for its sheriff’s offi ce with the phrase “Work in Wyoming, where breaking the law is still il- legal & cops are funded!” Despite the bad blood, Wyoming’s lax fi reworks laws have long enticed Coloradans to cross the border. In Denver, the use and possession of all fi reworks — even sparklers — is illegal year-round, and the rest of Colorado is under laws almost as strict. Meanwhile, Laramie County allows the sale of con- sumer fi reworks to anyone who is at least sixteen years old. Elliott, a Denver native, fi rst started business in Wyoming with a fi reworks stand in the late 1990s, and he says there was ten- sion even then. “Back then, they would basi- cally tell us to go to hell. ‘Go back to Colorado, we don’t like you, we don’t like where you come from, get the hell out of Wyoming,’” Elliott recalls. “Being from Colo- rado is not welcome there. They call us ‘greenies’ because of our license plates. You don’t want to be from Colorado and be in Laramie County. ... But they sure love the Colorado money.” After he was bought out in the early 2000s, Elliott focused on running (legal) fi reworks tents and Christmas tree lots throughout Colorado. He says that when he returned to Laramie County to open Jurassic Fireworks with his daughter in 2018, he felt like the county was trying to block their application, accusing them of providing incorrect or incon- sistent information about the application and holding them to different standards regarding issues like storage and building regulations. But the commissioners lay the blame on Elliott. During a meeting on June 5, 2018, then-Commissioner Amber Ash said an unnamed “gentleman” with Jurassic had caused “a lot of trouble in terms of anger issues and walking out of meetings.” Friction led to two postponements and one rejection. By the time the application was fi nally withdrawn on June 19, 2018, Commis- sioner Troy Thompson — who’d advocated for Jurassic in earlier meetings — accused Juras- sic leadership of mistreating the county staff, referencing “nasty, threatening emails” and “demeaning” treatment from the applicant. When the Elliotts applied again the next year, they faced more opposition. This time, from their future neighbor and rival: Phan- tom Fireworks. Two representatives of Phantom testifi ed against Jurassic being granted an operating permit in 2019, criticizing Jurassic because its building lacked a fi re suppression system, though the system was not legally required. “What we have is a novice in the sale and management of fireworks stores. That’s a concern,” Alex Davison, an attorney for Phantom Fireworks, said during his testi- mony on June 4, 2019. “Anything that any of us do in the [fi reworks] business that creates concern or a problem could very easily end up refl ecting on everyone in the business.” Despite the testimony, commissioners unanimously approved the permit, launch- ing what became Jurassic’s tumultuous run in Laramie County. Bring Out the Bullhorns On most summer days, customers can fi nd Elliott standing outside of Artillery World Fireworks, waving a fl ag from the edge of the parking lot and shouting over a bullhorn about the store’s latest deals, trying to entice passersby to choose Artillery World over three competing fi reworks businesses nearby. Before the permit battle began, a pre-re- corded message of Elliott’s voice also blared over loudspeakers on a loop: “Go anywhere but Phantom,” “Don’t support liars, thieves and crooks,” “They got caught ripping off the Colorado consumers.” The message directed people to phantomfi reworkscams.com, a website Elliott created that accuses Phantom Fireworks of misleading sales pricing. Elliott says that Phantom’s testimony against Jurassic’s permit application and a con- fl ict about signage led him to look into that company and eventually launch phantomfi reworkscams. com. (Phantom tried to have the website removed in 2021, but its domain complaint was denied.) During his research, Elliott spoke to Phantom workers on the phone, anonymously inquiring about their sales practices. One employee told Elliott to avoid Jurassic Fireworks, calling the man who runs it — El- liott himself — “shady.” “He actually tried to pay somebody $10,000 to burn down our building once,” the employee said. (Westword reviewed the recording but could not confi rm its authen- ticity.) “He sexually harassed a bunch of our female employees; he had people sneaking into our store and breaking product; again, he tried to have the store set on fi re. ... He’s just not a good person.” Elliott says these kinds of rumors spread by Phantom employees inspired him to step up his bullhorn activity from simply advertis- ing his store to full-on “attack mode.” “There’s no proof. There’s nothing,” Elliott says of the allegations against him. “In 2020, when we started getting those ugly recordings, that’s when we started defending ourselves.” While there are no records of reports regarding attempted arson for hire, Petra Goldberg, manager of Phantom’s Cheyenne store, reported other accusations to Laramie County commissioners. In one report from July 2021 in which Elliott was not named, Goldberg claimed that Jurassic employees harassed young female Phantom employ- ees to the point that the Phantom workers needed to be escorted to their cars. This spring, Goldberg told commissioners that she once caught a man damaging her merchandise and ripping off price tags; she said that the man told her he’d been hired to do so, but did not say who had hired him. She also said that her customers have complained about being verbally accosted while entering Phantom and that Elliott used to shout her name over his bullhorn, asking if she “enjoys working for liars and thieves.” “I’ve had employees not return because their parents expressed concern that they do not feel it is safe for their young teenag- ers to work in the atmosphere,” Goldberg said during the May 7 board meeting. “For the past fi ve years, I have endured constant bombardment. ... Before this time, we never had any issues with our competitors, ever.” Since Jurassic and Artillery World opened, Phantom representatives are the only people to have ever testifi ed against the stores during public hearings. Goldberg declined to speak for this story, referring a reporter to Phantom’s corporate offi ce. Westword’s call to that offi ce was not returned. Harassment, Threats and “Obnoxious Behavior” Commissioners insist their beef with Elliott has nothing to do with Colorado, pointing out that the other fi reworks shops in the area aren’t Wyoming-based, either. Phantom is headquartered in Ohio, Pyro City is based in Missouri, and Black Cat’s corporate offi ce is in Kansas. The commissioners also say they’ve re- ceived complaints about Elliott’s behavior from sources other than Phantom. But fi les from the county attorney regarding Jurassic Fireworks only include two complaints, one from Goldberg in 2021 and an anonymous noise complaint in 2023, identifi ed only as not from “your competitor.” Records from the sheriff’s offi ce show two reports from Goldberg — a noise complaint in 2023 and an accusation of vandalism in 2019 — neither of which resulted in any citations or charges for Elliott. The only report not connected to Phantom involves a 2019 call to the sheriff’s offi ce from the owner of a nearby bison ranch, who said that Jurassic employees were standing on a semi-trailer and waving customers toward the store. The employees ultimately agreed to leave without any further action taken, ac- cording to the sheriff’s offi ce records. According to Elliott, law enforcement has visited his store “probably twenty times” in response to complaints about the bullhorn or speakers, but he’s Sparks .re Flying continued from page 5 continued on page 8 Jurassic Fireworks is just across the Wyoming border. A banner urges drivers coming up from Colorado to pass Phantom Fireworks. Pete Elliott returned to Laramie County in 2018 to open Jurassic Fireworks. EVAN SEMÓN EVAN SEMÓN EVAN SEMÓN
