Arson At Home Of Man Who Led Police To Car Burglar
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KENDALL (CBSMiami) – A man, whose call to 911 Tuesday led to the arrest of an accused serial burglar, is now a victim after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at his home Wednesday morning.
No one was in the Kendall home at the time of the attack, but the man who lives there, who helped police catch that accused burglar, is pointing fingers.
"This was arson. They set the house on fire," Billy Franco told CBS4's Natalia Zea.
Franco, on Tuesday, called 911 which led police to the arrest of 23-year-old Bryan Aneiros, who police said was breaking into cars in the area.
Neighbors called him a hero for calling police.
At 2:30 AM Wednesday morning, while Aneiros was still locked up, police said surveillance video shows someone threw a Molotov cocktail at the home where Franco stays but it didn't go off. At 5:30 AM, someone came back to the house and lit it by hand--starting the fire.
Franco says he was in the Keys on a job during the attack but wasted no time blaming Aneiros.
"It's all revengeful for helping to catch a bad guy," Franco said.
Franco told CBS4 News about a text a neighbor, who he says knows Aneiros, sent him allegedly telling him to, 'watch his back' and calling him a 'snitch.'
Police are not ruling out that neighbor, Aneiros or anyone else as a suspect. They are saying only that the car burglary investigation is separate from the arson investigation.
Zea asked Franco if he has any other enemies, if he was sure Aneiros was the person who committed the crime.
"I have no other enemies. This all didn't come about until I helped catch the bad guy with the police that was breaking and robbing all the vehicles."
Franco does not own the home. He says it's in foreclosure and he's had legal troubles with family over the property. But he says he grew up there, and is mostly saddened that his American flag, that he hung from his porch trellis, was destroyed.
"Setting fire to my father's American flag that was set on his casket. My father served 12 years for this country. That's the most hurtful thing of it all."
No matter who committed this arson, Franco says he hopes no one out there will be discouraged to report a crime in the future.
