Video: Police looking for Shelton arsonist

Larger screen

SHELTON, Wash. - The Mason County Sheriff's Office needs help catching a man they're calling the "pot-belly arsonist."

Police think the arsonist tried to use gas from someone's car to light a home on fire at Fawn Lake, a gated community. It appears to be a random act.

On Wednesday night a Fawn Lake residet found newspapers on fire in his car port. The burning paper headed off in two directions - toward some paint cans and to the open gas tank of an SUV. He put the fire out before it did any damage.

"There isn't any logical explanation for this kind of thing," said the man, who doesn't want the arsonist to know his name.

Tim Bunting is known as the "gate-keeper" at Fawn Lake. His surveillance cameras captured shots of a man entering and leaving the development near the time of the fire.

KING

Surveillance video at the Fawn Lake community shows a man with a "pot-belly" leaving at the time of the fire. Police are seeking any information on the man.

The suspect is about 25 years old. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt that says "friend with privileges." And there's that other identifiable trait - his belly.

"Hopefully we'll get him before he does any more bad deeds," said Chief Deputy Dean Byrd.

Sheriff's deputies say if anyone knows or sees the man, don't approach him. Call 9-1-1.

Neighbors think that man may have been hitch-hiking near that development shortly before the fire Wednesday night.