At 3 in the morning, particularly on a rainy night, most of us are just making that second turn in our beds but not Justo Swazo, a resident of Port Loyola who was alert enough to pick up the scent of gasoline being thrown on his house by a would-be arsonist. Swazo, who is a mechanic, woke up to the sure smell of premium fuel and looked out of his window to see a man with whom he'd had a minor difference throwing gas on his house and ready to strike the match. Swazo picks up the story from there.
Justo Swazo,
“I was inside my house but I wasn’t asleep because it was raining. Now this dude set the gasoline and when he was looking to strike the match I hollered at him ‘why are you burning down my house.’ He didn’t have on any shirt so he ran up the street as I came out. When I came out I picked up the bottle of gasoline and matches and ran to Central American Boulevard at the phone booth and called emergency for the police. The police responded 15 minutes after and we went and picked up the guy. That was it right there so.”
KS: So he would have set your house on fire just like that?
Justo Swazo,
“That’s right because he is a Spanish and they don’t have no mercy. I am a black man and I survive for my own because this belongs to me; this is my own thing.”
KS: If you didn’t come out and catch him, what would have happened?
Justo Swazo,
“He would have burnt it. Definitely and positively, he would have burnt it. But he wouldn’t have burnt me because I am a mechanic and the smell of the gasoline woke me up.”
KS: So I suspect you are feeling pretty lucky?
Justo Swazo,
“Well he is lucky I didn’t chase him and catch him because probably I could have...well probably I would have killed him if I had come out and caught him. Definite and positive about that. But I thought about the law and I went to the boulevard and let the law know what went on so they could caught him. That’s the beauty of it.”
Today, 19-year-old Vicente Alberto Reina was charged for attempted arson.
What was the misunderstanding that inspired the attempted arson? Swazo said he'd heard a story about how this "Spanish man" had robbed his own brother of $10. He repeated that story to a friend last night and a few hours later, said "Spanish man" was allegedly lighting up his house which proves the long held theory that following "shoosh" can get your house burnt down.