MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis Police are looking for the person who set at least five cars on fire at a Parkway Village apartment complex early Thursday morning.
Just after midnight, Memphis firefighters were called to the Shadowbrook Townhomes on New Getwell to put out car fires on two different streets. All of the vehicles were destroyed by the flames.
“To me, it looked like some kind of bomb they set on the hood, because every car they targeted the hood catches on first,” said Jasmine Jones.
Jones doesn’t live at the Shadowbrook Townhomes, but her car was one of the vehicles vandalized overnight. Jones said she let her mother borrow her vehicle because someone set her mother’s car on fire there Saturday.
“First, we thought it was a problem with her car but come to find out, when this just happened late last night, that someone around here is setting cars on fire,” said Jones.
Jones’s sister’s car was also parked on Sarabee Lane and set ablaze Thursday night. Police said around the corner on Ansnow Lane, three other vehicles were torched.
“My car is done for. They told me it was totaled,” said Deandrea Jefferson.
Deandrea Jefferson said someone knocked on her door and told her car was on fire. When she came outside, she saw her neighbor’s silver Monte Carlo was also burning. Jefferson said she has no idea who did it or why.
“It’s scary because like once they get bored with the cars, they might start doing this to the apartments,” said Jefferson.
Jones said her mother just moved to the apartment complex, but a former tenant told her this has been going on for months.
“The people who used to live here comes by here every Sunday to get her mail, and she told my mom that she had four of her cars burned up, and they never did anything about it, so she moved,” said Jones.
Employees at the apartment complex said they didn’t know about any other car fires. The Memphis Fire Department would only tell us they are investigating the most recent incidents.
Police were back at the Shadowbrook Townhomes Thursday afternoon trying to look at surveillance footage from a neighbor’s camera.
“The person who did this, whoever you are, I wish you would stop and turn yourself in. I don’t know why you are doing this. Targeting people’s cars. People work hard for what they got,” said Jones.
Jones said she started a new job and now has no transportation. She said no one in her family had car insurance, and they have started a GoFundMe campaign to buy new vehicles.
If you know anything that can help investigators call CrimeStoppers at (901)528-CASH.