YORKVILLE — Police are searching for a man they say has been deliberately setting fires at local businesses in the wee hours of the morning, according to the NYPD.
The suspect first struck La Mode Organic Cleaners, at 526 E. 82nd St., between York and East End avenues, sparking a blaze to the front of the shop at roughly 2:20 a.m. on July 26, police said.
Then a week later, at about 4:24 a.m. on Aug. 3, he set fire to Gentlemen's Resale, a consignment shop four blocks away at 322 E. 81st St., between First and Second avenues, according to authorities.
Shop owner Gary Scheiner, said this is the second time his consignment store has been hit by the arsonist.
On July 29, he got to his shop at 6 a.m. to find burnt cardboard in front of his business. When he reviewed surveillance video, he saw a man wearing an overcoat, a hat, gloves and sunglasses ride up on a bike and begin pouring something onto cardboard in front of his store at roughly 2 a.m. Then he lit a match, he said.
A couple walking their dog saw the flames and called 911.
When the suspect returned on Aug. 3, Scheiner said he was woken up by his alarm system, which alerts him through his phone.
A surveillance video of the incident provided by Scheiner shows the suspect in cargo shorts and a backward baseball cap:
Scheiner rushed to the store that night to find the front windows shattered from the heat and his floors damaged by smoke and water. The metal fire alarm on the outside of the storefront was burned into a clump, he said.
"I was dumbfounded," Scheiner, who's owned the shop for 24 years, said on Thursday."You wonder who your enemy is. I don't know of any."
No one was injured in either incident and police did not immediately have information about the extent of the damage done to the cleaners.
Gentlemen's Resale, which is still undergoing repair work, will be closed for another week and a half, Scheiner said.
Police could not confirm that there was another fire at the store on July 29. FDNY did not immediately respond to request for confirmation.
La Mode Organic Cleaners did not immediately return a call for comment.
