LAKE STEVENS — A video on a stolen cellphone helped solve a $100,000 arson at the Lake Stevens Boys & Girls Club, according to police.
Two boys, 13 and 16, were booked into the Denney Juvenile Justice Center in Everett for investigation of setting the fire around 2:30 p.m. on Memorial Day, melting two portable toilets next to the youth center’s gym. Flames spread to the building on East Lakeshore Drive. The gym was shuttered for repairs. The fire was ruled an arson by Lake Stevens Fire investigators.
Within days, detectives were notified a stolen phone had uploaded video to a server in “the cloud,” capturing voices of two boys at the time of the fire, Lake Stevens police Cmdr. Ron Brooks said. They were shooting video of the burning toilets.
“There goes our baby,” one of the boys said as firefighters doused the flames, according to police.
Lake Stevens police tracked down both boys Thursday morning. They admitted they lit paper inside the plastic portable toilets, according to police.
“They didn’t say why,” Brooks said. “They said that they did.”
Sprinklers stopped flames from spreading at the Boys & Girls Club, but the gym floor was destroyed. Damage to the building was estimated at $75,000, according to the fire department. The lost contents were valued at $25,000.
Over the past two weeks, police had received many helpful tips from the public through an arson tip line, Brooks said. Police suspect one of the boys was involved in an assault the same weekend at Wyatt Park, just outside the city. A group of teenagers was throwing things from a dock into Lake Stevens when a man confronted them and told them to stop, police said. The kids beat him and kicked him in the head, leaving the man with an apparent concussion.
Officers recommended felony assault charges to the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office.
Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snocaleb.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
