Tag: arson

Homeless man admits to torching mailbox, destroying ballots in Phoenix

A homeles Phoenix man was arrested on Thursday after he allegedly set fire to a US Postal Service collection box that contained numerous election ballots. 35-year-old Dieter Klofkorn was charged with one count of arson and booked into Maricopa County jail. He later confessed to the crime.

The Phoenix Fire Department contacted police shortly after 1 am on Thursday after they responded to a fire at a USPS collection box on Seventh Avenue, a press release stated. 

While working on leads in the case, investigators were led to possible suspect Klofkorn. He was arrested on an outstanding and unrelated warrant. While in custody, he admitted to the arson. “Klofkorn stated that he committed the arson because he wanted to be arrested and that his actions were not politically motivated and not related to anything involving the upcoming election,” the press release stated.

Klofkorn was said to have lit a piece of paper on fire and tossed it into the collection box, in which there were around 20 election ballots and other pieces of mail, which were destroyed, according to AZ Central. Social media users claimed that the fire was set by a Republican, with an official Democratic Party account on X spreading the claims. “But yeah, Democrats are the ones doing voter fraud,” wrote the Harris County, Texas Democratic Party X account in response to a post that claimed Klofkorn was a Republican. 

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Burning ballots pulled from inside smoking Vancouver ballot box; hundreds likely damaged

Hundreds of ballots burned in a Vancouver ballot box arson Monday morning, authorities report.

KATU was on the scene at Fisher’s Landing Transit Center in Vancouver shortly after 4 a.m., where heavy smoke was seen coming from inside a dropoff ballot box.

Our photographer captured grey smoke steadily billowing out of the Park and Ride ballot box at Fisher’s Landing Transit Center near Southeast 162nd Avenue just after 6 a.m.

Multiple police units were in the area, and the ballot box was cordoned off by police tape as it continued to smoke.

Around 6:30 a.m., KATU captured footage of first responders releasing a pile of actively burning ballots onto the ground, which continued to smolder and smoke heavily even after the flames were put out.

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Cal Fire employee arrested in connection with off-duty arson

A member of California’s firefighter department has been accused of violating his own duties and starting several fires over the last couple of weeks.

CAL FIRE law enforcement officers arrested Robert Hernandez, 38, a CAL FIRE fire apparatus engineer, at Howard Forest Fire Station Friday, and accused him of setting five fires while off duty.

The blazes burned through a combined area of under an acre, according to CAL FIRE.

“I am appalled to learn one of our employees would violate the public’s trust and attempt to tarnish the tireless work of the 12,000 women and men of CAL FIRE,” CAL FIRE Director and Fire Chief Joe Tyler, said in a statement.

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San Bernardino wildfire started by suspected arsonist

A California man has been arrested in connection with the San Bernardino Line Fire, which has scorched tens of thousands of acres of forestland. The wildfire, which began last week, has led to significant damage and the evacuation of residents in affected areas.Justin Wayne Halstenberg, a 34-year-old resident of Norco, California, was taken into custody following an investigation by the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department into the wildfire that has resulted in over 34,000 acres being burned. 

“Highland Station detectives, in collaboration with Cal Fire investigators, identified Justin Wayne Halstenberg as the suspect who started a fire in the area of Baseline Road and Alpin Street in the city of Highland, also known as the Line Fire, on September 5, 2024,” said the sheriff’s office in a press release.

Halstenberg has been a delivery driver for FedEx since last year and previously worked at the US Postal Service, according to the New York Post. He is facing multiple charges, including arson of an inhabited structure, arson of forest land, and possession of flammable material.

Authorities have not provided further details on how Halstenberg is suspected of starting the fire. He is currently being held at San Bernardino’s Central Detention Center on $80,000 bail, with a court appearance scheduled for Thursday.

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Three Time Deported Illegal Alien Charged in Arson Fire, Killed Mother and Two Children Sleeping In Home

An illegal immigrant, previously deported three times, has been charged with murdering a mom and her two sons after setting their mobile home ablaze with the family sleeping inside. 

A third son, whose name has not been released, fortunately escaped the violent criminal alien.

Jose Carmen Cardona will reportedly be arraigned on Monday on murder, attempted murder, and child endangerment charges.

It is currently unclear where the man illegally entered the country from, but per Fox, “A source with knowledge of the investigation tells Fox News Digital the suspect has been deported three times and returned to the U.S. anyway.”

Biden’s illegal immigrants are responsible for a growing number of murders and violent crimes against American women and children.

Notably, as The Gateway Pundit reported, Laken Riley, a talented young nursing student at the University of Georgia, was brutally murdered by Jose Antonio Ibarra, a criminal illegal alien, while going on a campus jog.

The Gateway Pundit also reported earlier this month that an illegal alien from El Salvador was charged with brutally raping and murdering Rachel Morin, a mother-of-five, on a Maryland hiking trail last year.

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1000-Year-Old Notre Dame Cathedral in Normandy Has ‘Caught Fire’ – Authorities Say Possible ‘Religious Attack’

A 1000-year-old cathedral in the French city of Rouen has caught fire in what authorities say could be a religiously motivated attack.

While details about the blaze are currently scarce, firefighters are currently working to extinguish the fire and reduce the level of damage.

Local television footage initially showed a dark plume of smoke rising from the spire, with onlookers in the streets below watching in horror.

Other images revealed smoke seeping through a gap in the white cover surrounding the scaffolding.

A masterpiece of French medieval Gothic architecture, the cathedral dates back to the 12th century and gained international fame after being repeatedly painted by the Impressionist artist Claude Monet in the 19th century. Between the years of 1876 and 1880 it was the tallest building in the world.

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Disgraced Professor Sentenced for Action That Could Have Trapped Firefighters in Deadly Blaze

A former college lecturer on “criminal justice issues” is going to get some first-hand experience in the subject after he was sentenced to spend five years and three months in prison on Thursday.

Gary Stephen Maynard had pleaded guilty in January to starting a number of fires in California that could have had much more disastrous results than they did.

Maynard, 49, had formerly lectured at Santa Clara University and Sonoma State University, KCRA reported.

The former lecturer admitted to starting at least four fires in July and August of 2021, according to a Justice Department news release, and pleaded guilty to three counts of arson.

One count of arson was dismissed as part of a plea agreement, according to court records cited by The New York Times.

Maynard was charged with starting fires behind firefighters who were working to contain the Dixie Fire, which eventually destroyed more than 1,000 homes and spread over 1,500 square miles, according to KCRA.

“He intentionally made a dangerous situation more perilous by setting some of his fires behind the men and women fighting the Dixie fire, potentially cutting off any chance of escape,” Phillip A. Talbert, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, said in a statement (available in full below).

It eventually grew to become the second-largest fire in California history, according to the outlet.

“Maynard faced the possibility of up to 20 years in prison and a $750,000 fine,” KCRA reported. “Besides the prison sentence of more than five years, he was ordered to pay $13,081 in restitution.”

His attorney argued that Maynard was “suffering from untreated and significant mental health issues when he set the fires and has sought treatment since then,” according to Fox News.

“A Santa Clara University colleague of Mr. Maynard, who was not identified, told the police in October 2020 that Mr. Maynard was struggling with anxiety, depression, split personality, and wanted to kill himself, the complaint said,” according to The Times.

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Canadian man who claimed wildfires were a federal conspiracy admits arson

A Canadian man who claimed forest fires were the result of a government conspiracy has pleaded guilty to lighting more than a dozen blazes during the country’s record-breaking wildfire season, as nearly 100 fires persist in drought-stricken regions.

Brian Paré admitted to 13 counts of arson and one count of arson with disregard for human life at the courthouse in central Quebec, an act that drew away key firefighting resources from nearly 700 fires in the province last summer.

Those blazes, which required the aid of international fire crews, charred more than 4.5m hectares of boreal landscape. Virtually all of those fires were caused by lightning strikes, the Quebec’s fire service says.

But at the courthouse in the town of Chibougamau, prosecutor Marie-Philippe Charron said on Monday two of the 14 fires lit by Paré forced the evacuation of 500 homes, the Canadian Press reported. The largest fire lit by Paré consumed nearly 873 hectares of forest.

Fire officials investigated a string of five blazes in June that had no possible natural cause and broke out days after the province had implemented a fire ban. The 38-year-old Paré quickly became a suspect when he was spotted in the location of the fires and “demonstrated a certain interest in fires” after an interview with police, said Charron.

In June police began watching his social media posts, which frequently focused on the province’s wildfires. He shared content suggesting the record-breaking fire season was the result of government intervention, not climate change. The prosecution said police specialists developed a suspect profile based on the fires – and increasingly, Paré’s seemed a match.

Police later obtained a warrant to install a tracking device on Paré’s vehicle and found he travelled to locations where other fires were started.

After he was arrested in September, he admitted to starting nine fires and “claimed he was doing tests to find out whether the forest was really dry or not”, Charron told the court.

Despite a string of conspiratorial theories over the summer, amplified by Alberta’s premier, nearly all of Canada’s fires were caused by lightning striking the tinder-like condition of forests.

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Nearly ONE HUNDRED churches across Canada have been torched or damaged after activists lied that 200 indigenous children were buried under Catholic schools

Almost 100 Christian churches in Canada have been systematically targeted in apparent revenge attacks following a hoax about mass graves containing Native American children. 

In 2021, a horrific story swept the internet as an indigenous group in Saskatchewan claimed to find 751 unmarked graves under the Marieval Indian Residential School, weeks after 215 children were supposedly discovered under another school in British Columbia. 

The schools were run by Christian churches – largely Catholic – and sought to eliminate their students’ Indigenous culture so they could ‘assimilate’ into Canadian society.

However, excavations carried out last year failed to turn up any evidence of bodies, and most experts concluded that claims of mass graves were exaggerated. 

At the same time the excavations failed for the past two years, at least 96 churches have been burned, vandalized and destroyed, seemingly in retaliation, with phrases smeared on the walls including: ‘Where are the children.’

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Alleged Hate Crime Victim in Texas Charged with Burning Down His Own House

A Texas man who claimed his house was sprayed with racist graffiti is now facing charges of burning down his own home. Two men, including a family member, reportedly died in the fire, and another person was seriously injured.

A San Jacinto County grand jury returned a true bill indictment against Waterwood resident Mario Roberson, Sheriff Greg Capers told Breitbart Texas on Tuesday. The grand jury charged Roberson with Felony Arson after an investigation by the Texas State Fire Marshal’s Office into a June 10 fire that left two people dead and another seriously injured.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers told Breitbart Texas that a warrant for Roberson’s arrest has not yet been issued. “We can’t do anything until we have a warrant for his arrest,” Capers explained. “The best thing Roberson can do would be to turn himself in.”

Roberson claimed earlier this year that his home was sprayed with graffiti that included racial slurs, KTRK ABC 13 reported.

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