A clumsy New Mexico aspiring arsonist accidentally set himself on fire while trying to set fire to his ex-girlfriend’s house, then fled the scene engulfed in flames after the incident was caught on camera.
According to surveillance footage from a neighbor, Artemio Sanchez Ortega, 46, walked calmly through a residential neighborhood in Albuquerque on the night of May 24 with a red gasoline can, jumped on the front door of his ex-wife’s home and attempted to set the house on fire. Obtained by KOAT Action News 7.
But the arsonist’s evil plan had spectacularly failed as the garden was engulfed in flames while Sanchez-Ortega was still standing there, struggling to get by.
As the firelight dimmed and the camera refocused, the video showed the clumsy criminal dangling from the gate, flames burning on his shoulders and legs.
Then he tripped over his own feet and ran down the road, flames engulfing his body as he fled.
“The momentary karma of the situation was oddly satisfying,” Daniel Provine, a neighbor who captured the crime on camera, told the station.
“But it’s unfortunate that he managed to get back in his truck and drive off without anyone noticing and got away.”
The suspect’s ex-wife and their children, who were inside the home when the fire started, were not injured.
Meanwhile, Sanchez-Ortega fled the scene in a white pickup truck and remains on the run, the station reported.
According to the criminal complaint, the suspect’s former partner told investigators that Sanchez-Ortega had called her three times before the incident and “could tell he had been drinking.”
The fire appeared to be intense in the footage, but in reality only damaged a vehicle parked outside, the station said.
“We have certainly provided it to investigators,” Provine said of the recordings.
“It’s completely absurd and really unfortunate to see the bitterness that was used to light a fire and the incompetence that was then engulfed in flames in the process,” he continued. “I feel bad for the neighbours and wanted to help in any way I could.”
