Story Archive

Torch Song Felony

After a house fire in Del City, Okla., investigators were suspicious that it was arson. While poking around after the fire was extinguished, they noticed that the next door neighbor had security cameras. They asked Annie Durham, 59, if they could look at the recordings, and she willingly gave up the password so investigators could see them. Sure enough, one of the cameras caught a clear image of someone throwing something burning into the vacant house’s open door: “A stick with a rag or towel wrapped around it,” says Del City Fire Chief Brandon Pursell. “It had some lighter fluid poured on it.” And the image was clear enough that a suspect could be identified and arrested: Annie Durham, who had been in an “ongoing dispute” with her neighbor. “She caught herself on camera setting the fire,” Pursell says. (RC/KFOR Oklahoma City) ...She got the cameras to catch obliviots who were up to no good — and they worked!