An Orange County man is under arrest after allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at his own vehicle inside of an impound lot, according to an arrest report.
"He came back and started throwing gas cocktail bombs over the fence on his own car," said car lot owner Darnell Adams.
An arrest report says the suspect, Ayub Abdulrahman, came to get his car back after it was impounded and set it on fire instead.
The state fire marshal is now investigating what happened at the impound lot.
Adams said he was going to hand over the keys because Abdulrahman had already paid almost $300 to get his car out of the impound lot, but instead of it going home, the burned-out car was stuck behind crime scene tape.
Adams said he was bringing Abdulrahman his keys when surveillance cameras caught him throwing several firebombs at the vehicle.
“Everything is on camera, and I showed it to the cops,” Adams said. “I mean, it's just clear as day, throwing, like three, four, five gas bombs over the fence.”
Deputies asked WFTV not to show the rest of this video while they're in the early stages of the investigation, but the surveillance video shows exactly what Adams described.
“I didn't even own it anymore. He was getting it out,” Adams said. “Twenty minutes. If he had waited 20 minutes, he would've been able to drive away in his car.”
Adams said he was coming around the corner with the keys and saw Abdulrahman running away. He chased after him until deputies made an arrest.
Adams said his mechanic was able to put the fire out with an extinguisher.
“What if he would've came back later and tried to finish the job and all my cars catch on fire?” Adams said.
Adams said he's especially grateful the scene is just contained to the one car.
“We got a paint shop in the back, so it's a lot of flammable materials, and he could've harmed a lot of people over here,” Adams said.
Deputies said the State Fire Marshal's Office is investigating the incident.
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