[imagesource: Facebook / Shelley Browner]

According to concerned Jozi residents, there’s an arsonist on the loose.

The man, who acts alone, is said to break into homes in the upmarket suburbs of Hyde Park, Dunkeld, and Illovo, steal nothing, and then set them alight.

But first, he raids the fridge and leaves his mark by defecating in the home, which has reportedly been captured on CCTV cameras.

Can you imagine the neighbourhood WhatsApp group panic?

Except, according to TimesLIVE, local law enforcement doesn’t have a record of many of these arson attacks:

Bramley police station commander Owen King said he is in charge of a large area which encompasses the suburbs in question, and is not aware of a serial arsonist operating in his jurisdiction.

“There is possibly a lot of stuff that happened and was never properly reported to us or went through other channels. But I can confirm that since January 1 2021 to date we received only three reports of house fires — one in Illovo, one in Hyde Park and one in Marlborough Gardens.

One Facebook post by Shelly Browner, which has been widely shared, describes “13 houses over 12 months and 4 this year with more frequent occurrences. Last 2 were only 3 weeks apart.”

In the comments section, others have shared their experience:

TimesLIVE followed up with Inspector Morris Zwane, acting divisional chief of fire safety and research, who said that there had been “a lot of fires in the area”.

He stopped short of labelling them the work of a serial arsonist.

The ward councillor for the area, Martin Williams, said he had heard about the arson cases and was trying to confirm them.

Andre Snyman, founder and head of eBlockwatch, said he had been alerted to suspicions of an arsonist but had been asked to hold off on making any information public by insurance companies and investigators “who obviously want to catch the guy”.

Snyman spoke with a Hurlingham resident who describes her home being torched by a man operating alone in November of last year:

In the past several weeks alone, claims Snyman, he has been told of a number of these incidents:

“What we do know is that there is a guy out there, and he operates alone. He seems to watch his victims and then burns their homes down when they are away. He goes in, eats whatever food he can find, throws around some bottles of wine — sometimes wees on the floor or defecates on the carpet — and then sets fire to the place. He doesn’t take anything,” Snyman said.

According to a 1980 study, burglars sometimes urinate or defecate in the homes they rob due to “a combination of drink, fear and physical exercise and a reluctance to risk being trapped in a small room such as a toilet”.

Snyman says he is putting together “a catalogue of information” regarding the arson attacks.

[source:timeslive]