(N.M.) Business owner fed up with serial arsonist
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A local business owner is fed up with a serial arsonist who is wreaking havoc around the Wells Park neighborhood. "Everything is tough enough in this world as it is. With everything that's going on, all the craziness, the COVID—everything,” said Sam Hebert, main mechanic and owner of German Precision.
Hebert has a heated relationship with his neighbor, Anthony Tolbert, who is well known by some around downtown Albuquerque. "And at this point, it's so dangerous that somebody is going to die. It's inevitable,” Hebert said. Hebert said things escalated a few days ago on Friday, Nov. 13. Footage from Hebert’s surveillance cameras show Tolbert lighting a Jetta on fire and watching it burn. Afterwards, he’s seen taking off his pants and casually strolling back into the night.
"If you just look at his arrest record, it's mind-blowing,” Hebert said. According to court records, Tolbert has been arrested or summoned 15 times this year for breaking and entering, criminal trespassing and arson. "The number I heard from one of the investigators was between 30 and 40 arson attributed to him at this point,” Hebert said.
Court records also show that Tolbert was always found incompetent, which results in release with no consequences. "You either need to be locked in jail or you need to be in a psychiatric hospital. Not back on the street,” Hebert said. Tolbert’s most recent arrest was five days before the incident at Hebert’s business.
Hebert has received no help from a system that seems to have no answers for him, and there's been no consequences for a suspect who appears to show no signs of stopping.
https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/business-owner-fed-up-with-serial-arsonist/5926545/?cat=500
