EnviroLink Forum

Torch My Ride: Arson for Hire
SUV owners who are faced with rising gas prices have found a new way to get out from under their high car payments — arson.

This trend was spotted by a Southern California arson task force in the summer of 2005 when gas prices spiked. At one point, firefighters responding to a report of a vehicle fire arrived at the Los Angeles River Bed to find two SUVs burning at the same time.

Investigators found the arson-for-hire ring involved a new-car dealership in Cerritos, California. Debt-weary SUV owners contacted the finance manager, hoping to trade in their gas-guzzler for something cheaper. They were then put in touch with an arsonist who told them to leave the keys in the ignition and $300 cash in the glovebox. An arsonist would then take the car to a remote location and set it afire. After the car was torched, the owners would then contact their insurance company and report their vehicle stolen, expecting their debt to be cancelled. Instead, they were investigated for insurance fraud.

We Americans are just so stupid... we get ourselves in over our heads in debt to succumb to social pressures to buy the biggest, baddest, most expensive SUVs we can and then have to resort to crime to get out from under the crushing debt.

When the hell is society going to come to its senses??

I don't think you want to know the answer to that.

That's a good song.

Good. I have a different song in my head. Don't know the name of it, but you wouldn't know it anyway.