APOPKA, Fla. – Authorities have arrested a homeless individual following allegations that he ignited a fire at a thrift store dedicated to supporting the homeless, as reported by the police department.
According to an arrest affidavit, the Good Neighbor Place Thrift Store located on South Park Avenue was engulfed in flames shortly after 5 a.m. on Wednesday.
Officials report that first responders managed to secure the vicinity, and surveillance footage revealed an “unknown person” within the thrift store approximately five hours prior.
In fact, police revealed that a man — identified as Curtis Rouse, 38 — had come in through a window around midnight and began removing items from the store.
Several of these items, including blankets, clothes, pillows, jewelry and baseball cards, were discovered behind a church about a block away, police added.
“Additionally, shopping bags were found with tags bearing the name ‘Curtis Rouse,’” the affidavit reads.
Furthermore, investigators said that Rouse was seen leaving the thrift store just a minute before the fire started.
According to the affidavit, Rouse was later found at the Apopka Bike Station, and after being taken in for questioning, he told detectives that he’d noticed the open window at the thrift store and decided to go inside.
“He reported taking clothing and blankets that he claimed were needed,” the affidavit continues. “As he was exiting the thrift store, Rouse stated he was smoking a cigarette and discarded it inside the store, believing it to be extinguished.”
But according to detectives, Rouse claimed he walked over to the church to lie down, which is when he saw the flames coming from the store, causing him to flee the area.
After his conversation with detectives, police said Rouse wrote the following apology to the thrift store:
“This is Curtis Lamar Rouse Jr. I’m saying sorry for any inconvince (sic) I’ve caused I’m deeply sorry for the burning of your building I was not thinking at all that wasn’t my plot or anything. I asked that you please accept this letter of grievance. I ask that you please forgive me may God bless you.”
Despite the apology, Rouse was arrested and now faces charges of arson and burglary.
Meanwhile, the blaze left the store heavily damaged and surrounded by crime scene tape on Friday. The shop has remained closed since the fire.
The thrift store’s director, Ingrid Mergenthaler, described the destruction to News 6.
“There were broken windows. There was melted siding,” she said. “We were devastated.”
She said that the store, which is operated by the Apopka Seventh-day Adventist Church, donates all of its profits to support low-income and unhoused residents in the community.
“That store is there for one purpose and one purpose only: to serve the low-income and also the unsheltered of the city of Apopka,” she stated.
In addition, Mergenthaler said Rouse had previously received help from the store.
“This was somebody that we helped at one point, and to do this to us just feels like a violation,” she said. “You could have just come in and asked for something, and we would have given it to you.”
Mergenthaler said that all of the store’s employees are volunteers, and the building is considered a total loss.
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