Although when San Francisco's infamous Toilet Torcher made headlines by lighting up over 20 porta-potties in 2009, we haven't (ahem) caught wind of any cases of portable toilet arsons for a while. When last we heard, the Toilet Torcher (or probably just a copycat with a lighter) was setting sani-cans on fire in the Castro last year. Now, we have word that another possible toilet torcher struck last Saturday on the border of Noe Valley and La Lengua.
As neighborhood blog Noe Valley SF reports, officers from the Ingleside Police station were in the neighborhood of Duncan and Dolores Streets when a neighbor spotted a portable toilet on fire and flagged them down. The toilet fire spread to a parked vehicle before the Fire Department could put out the blaze. Nobody was injured, but the Examiner reports SFPD is investigating the arson along with two other suspicious fires that struck a Diamond Heights apartment building last week.
Adding to the mystery, there was another report of an attempted car fire in Glen Park around the same time early Saturday morning. In that case, the interior of a man's vehicle was set on fire in his driveway.
The original Toilet Torcher, remember, remains unidentified. Authorities assumed the blazes stopped because he or she was busted for a different crime, but we like to imagine him as the Zodiac of portable sanitation.
Previously: All Toilet Torcher coverage on SFist.