The incident occurred on the night of September 6 this year. Police received a report of a car on fire in one of the localities in Bogatynia Municipality. They immediately went to the scene, where they found that not only a passenger car but also the shelter under which it was parked was burning. A section of the roof of a residential building was also scorched.
They decided to evacuate the residents of the house immediately because gas cylinders were located near the burning car. The officers led two adults and a child out of the house.
Information obtained at the scene indicated that the arson may have been committed by a cousin of the affected family, who had been seen by them and who drove an off-road vehicle around the area.
The officers took immediate action and arrested the 63-year-old resident of Lubusz Voivodeship at a petrol station. The man had been driving under the influence. At the time of his arrest, he was drunk; a test showed more than 2.5 per mille of alcohol in his system.
Moreover, it emerged that the 63-year-old had previously been convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol and was subject to a driving ban.
The man admitted setting the family member’s car on fire. He claimed that he wanted to force his relatives to repay the PLN 800 debt this way.