Police seek portable toilet arsonist

PALMER — Not to ask a stupid question, but how do Palmer police know that the portable johns that burned down Tuesday were targets of arson?

Well, three reasons:

• Toilets, even chemical toilets, don’t tend to catch fire spontaneously.

• Four of them burned, so a coincidence is not likely.

• Cops have actually seen this happen before.

“Kids like to occasionally set stuff on fire, and that seems to be one of the targets,” Cmdr. Lance Ketterling said Friday afternoon. “Why that seems fun, I’m not quite sure.”

Taking all the evidence into account, Ketterling said, “It’d be pretty hard to call it an accident.”

He said the portable toilets were at the baseball fields behind Sherrod and Swanson elementary schools. Officers went out to investigate.

“I know the officer responded and they got the fire put out and they were basically a total loss,” Ketterling said.

And while it might not sound like a big loss, Ketterling said the cost to replace all four mobile toilets runs into the thousands.

Police are looking for whoever set them ablaze. Anyone who knows something should call them at 745-4811.