Arsonist picks wrong house
AN ARSONIST SET fire to a 99-year-old Bronx woman’s front lawn early Friday — possibly after mistaking her home for someone else’s, police and neighbors said.
Georgia Yelverton was asleep inside her home her on Blackrock Ave. in Unionport just after midnight when the smell of smoke and the sound of crackling fire woke her up.
“I want to live and die in peace — and you can’t do it with people burning your flowers outside,” the plucky nonagenarian (photo) said.
“Nobody had no right to do this to me.”
Police said a man driving a red Toyota poured gasoline on Yelverton’s front lawn and fence. He then walked down the sidewalk, leaving a trail of gasoline behind him before lighting the fuel.
The small fire consumed her plants and part of her steel fence before responding firefighters doused the blaze. The arsonist jumped back in his car and drove off. No arrest has been made.
Yelverton, who has lived in her home since 1982, said nothing like this has happened to her before.
“(It would) scare anybody to be in your bed sleeping and somebody’s out there trying to burn your house,” she said.
Neighbors believe that the arsonist meant to target Yelverton’s next-door neighbor but got the wrong address.
“I heard something was going on (next door) a few days ago,” said Yelverton, who uses a wheelchair to get around. “They got the wrong house last night.”
The neighbor in question, who wouldn’t give her name, admitted that she has been living in terror since a bitter divorce two years ago. Her home and front gate are riddled with bullet holes.
Investigators are looking into the possibility that the arsonist hit the wrong home, police sources said.