Man torches dumpster near apartments

A man carrying what appears to be a white bag walked into view of a security camera in the Zesto’s parking lot early Monday morning.

He walked to a dumpster in the back corner of the lot, just off 65th St. east of 15th Ave., near the “Bon Five” apartments.

Five minutes later, at 3:45 a.m., the dumpster begins to glow. Two minutes later, it’s fully ablaze, catching the fence on fire and scorching a nearby tree. The fire department arrived a short time later, extinguishing the blaze.

Fortunately, the apartment complex about 10 feet away (upper left in this photo) is unscathed in the fire. Zesto’s manager Jay Whitebread said he arrived at work on Monday morning, noticed the damage, and discovered the arson was caught on one of his security cameras. Whitebread said he showed police the video, and we’re checking to see if the fire department is investigating any possible link to the string of unsolved arsons in Greenwood.