Man shocked to find his car set ablaze
Police call act random vandalism
By: Gabrielle Giroday
Winnipeg Free Press [Manitoba]
March 26, 2009
HE survived a war in Bangladesh in the early 1970s.
However, the most shocking personal experience Canadian immigrant Selim Momtaz said he’s had was waking up Saturday to learn vandals ignited his car and three others on his street.
Police said there was about $40,000 damage to the vehicles parked around Raber Road and Hume Street around 6 a.m. Saturday. Three of the vehicles are seriously damaged.
Police are looking for more information about who caused the blaze.
“I can’t even think of how people break windows and just burn cars. We’re living in 2009, and still there’s people burning cars?” said Momtaz, 40, who moved to Canada in 2002 and works in Winnipeg.
He said his seven-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter were terrified to see their family’s only car, a 1997 Toyota Camry, ruined after suspects lit the fire and ran off.
He said he’s shaken by what he said he sees as an attack on his family.
The vehicle is now sitting in a Plessis Road car lot, a write-off.
“My daughter, she was crying,” he said.
“This incident is totally unacceptable. I still can’t imagine people would do that.”
According to a Manitoba Public Insurance spokesman, there are about 20,000 vehicle vandalism claims submitted a year, including about 100 to 120 for vehicles wrecked by arson.
Sgt. Derrick Todoruk of the Winnipeg Police Service Arson Strike Force said the vehicle fires Saturday caused “mindless, senseless damage.”
The Arson Strike Force is so busy with investigations he said the top priorities for officers are fires affecting two or more vehicles.
“It appears at this point it wasn’t linked to any planned event. You could equate it almost to kids walking down the street causing mischief,” he said.
He said anyone with information on the fire can call Crime Stoppers at [stop snitchin’]
Confrontation 
Leave a Reply