Man arrested after backpack lit on fire at Olympia’s Percival Landing

A 52-year-old transient man was arrested Thursday after he allegedly lit a woman’s backpack on fire at Olympia’s Percival Landing, according to an Olympia Police Department report.

Officers responded to the park after city employees reported that a man was causing a disturbance. He also had several open containers of alcohol and was cited for consuming alcohol in public.

As officers were leaving the scene, they saw the man, in his wheelchair, pushing himself away from a fire spreading across a backpack that was in the park. Officers extinguished the fire, which had burned through the backpack and damaged some items inside.

The owner of the backpack, a woman, told police that the suspect was angry with her because she had borrowed $20 and hadn’t paid him back yet.

He was booked into the Thurston County Jail on suspicion of second-degree arson.

This story was originally published August 14, 2015 at 8:17 AM with the headline "Man arrested after backpack lit on fire at Olympia’s Percival Landing."