CHICAGO — Remember the video we shared last month of a man tossing a Molotov cocktail that set a car on fire in McKinley Park? Well, Chicago police say they’ve tracked the arsonist down. But a judge only made him pay $500 to get out of jail.
Home security cameras captured video of the car being firebombed around 1:02 a.m. on August 21 in the 1600 block of West 32nd Place.
Footage shared on the Ring camera network (below) began with a small fire already burning at the tail end of a parked SUV. But the impatient arsonist returned to the scene to give the blaze a booster shot.
After parking his pickup in a nearby alley, the firebug walked toward the SUV and tossed a container of flammable liquid toward the flames. He ran back to his truck and drove away as the fire grew.
A Chicago Fire Department truck arrived less than ten minutes after the fire began to put out the blaze.
One week later, Chicago police arrested 36-year-old Marco Flores at a construction site in Bolingbrook to face arson charges.
Flores’ arrest report said CPD arson investigators identified him as the man who threw a Molotov cocktail, setting fire to the 2010 Ford Explorer. Police identified Flores through Secretary of State records, the report said, but it does not indicate what relationship, if any, he has with the woman who owns the SUV.
Prosecutors charged him with one count of arson causing more than $150 in damages.
Judge Maryam Ahmad set Flores’ bail at $5,000, meaning he had to pay a $500 deposit to go home.
Here’s the surveillance video: