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Once upon a time there was a grown man named Teddy. The mechanic at the Hometown Auto Repair Shop gave Teddy some bad news, “You’re going to need a new transmission, new brakes and a new engine block. Oh yeah, and your tires are worn down to the tread.” Teddy looked at his car’s odometer — 126,000 miles and the car was less than two years old! What was poor Teddy to do?
In the area of Johnston, Rhode Island, there were 98 “Teddy” stories in 1995. Some read like the above—tales of needing high-price repair work. Other stories had characters who had fallen way behind on their payments. No two sagas began quite alike, but the endings were all nearly identical. The car would end up as just one more vehicle arson statistic.
The back roads around the Central Landfill on Shun Pike are an attractive magnet for kerosene-toting pyromaniacs wanting to rid themselves of an unwanted automobile. In fact, as solutions go, it seems to be just too easy and the perpetrators come from miles around.
The Rhode Island State Fire Marshal’s office has a large volume of work, so the Johnston Fire Department and the Johnston Police Department have teamed up to present a united front against would-be firebugs. They’ve enlisted the assistance of the state’s largest underwriter of automobile insurance, Progressive Insurance Company, and formed a new arson investigation team. Participants are being trained to recognize the signs of vehicle arson and to do the necessary background investigations. Was the owner behind in payments? What was the value/debt ratio? Was the car mechanically impaired before the fire? Had fire coverage just been added or increased?
Area homeowners have been asked to help by watching for suspicious activities and the task force members will be conducting surveillance in certain hot spots.
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