Deputies said they also discovered a stolen credit and transaction card during the arrest.
PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — A man accused of starting a fire near a Pierce County home told a deputy he was trying to burn a bee that stung him, according to charging documents.
The man was charged Tuesday in Pierce County Superior Court with second-degree reckless burning and second-degree possession of stolen property.
The case began Monday night near 102nd Street South and Sheridan Avenue South in Parkland.
According to court documents, a Pierce County deputy saw flames coming from a small pile of sticks, pine needles and pine cones on the road, about 2 feet away from a grassy embankment. A man stood by the fire and poked the fire with a long bamboo stick.
As the deputy approached, the man began to stomp on the fire, scattering the burning material in the wind.
The fire reached about 2 feet high and was close enough to the dead grass to potentially spread to a wooden fence and nearby homes, the deputy wrote. He described conditions as “quite warm, windy and sunny”.
When asked what he was doing, the man initially said he wasn’t starting the fire, just putting it out, documents show. The deputy noticed the man was holding a lighter.
After questioning again, the man said: “There was a bee on it (the stick). I was trying to light the bee on fire.” He also said the bee stung him, but when questioned, he was unable to show any signs of the sting.
The officer wrote that during the arrest, he found two other lighters on the man.
Deputies also found a wallet containing Pokémon cards, Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and a credit card that had been reported stolen during a robbery seven days earlier, court documents said.
The items were returned to the owner, who told deputies they were taken on May 25, documents show.
The Central Pierce Fire extinguished burning material.
The man is being held at the Pierce County Jail.
