You go outside to your car and someone may have side swipped you. Someone may have even tore off your side mirror, but set you car on fire? Up to 10 cars in Harlem were found by their owners vandalized by flame without any lead of a suspect. Read more below.
The day began like any other for Oral Walker: he left his apartment in Harlem on Tuesday morning to take his daughter to school, and from there planned to continue on to work. But he got no farther than the sidewalk, stopped by the sight of his family’s new car, destroyed by fire.
Mr. Walker phoned his pregnant wife, who ran downstairs.
“It’s a total shock,” his wife, Sherise Budhai-Walker said, sitting in the couple’s walk-up apartment, her belly swollen, two weeks shy of her due date. “We got a new car for the baby, and now it’s a total loss. It’s just sad that someone would do that.”
Their charred white Range Rover sat by Jackie Robinson Park on Edgecombe Avenue near 150th Street with a police officer standing guard. It was one of about 10 cars set on fire on Tuesday in Harlem. The damaged vehicles included a dark convertible Ford Mustang, a green Scion and a dull-red minivan. Police and fire officials said the investigation was continuing, and no motive has been established.
Most of the cars were set afire in the darkness of early morning, the blazes reported between 3:24 a.m. and 5:03 a.m., a Fire Department spokesman, James Long, said. The last car was set afire a little after noon. Mr. Long did not say how the fires were set or whether an accelerant was used.
The vehicles were on quiet blocks along Edgecombe and Bradhurst Avenues and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard, between 142nd and 155th Streets, Mr. Long said. Some cars smoldered and were perhaps salvageable. Others were destroyed.
“I hope they find the person that did this and don’t let them off easy,” said Pamela Crowell, waiting for the burned-out green Scion that she shared with her son to be towed.
“All this damage,” she said, her lips pursed.
They had just bought the car in June, Ms. Crowell said, adding that her son worked overtime at his hospital job to be able to afford it.
