Following on a couple of porta-potty torchings two weeks back in the Richmond, we're getting news today of another incident from last week of another porta-potty torched near Lake Merced. Is the infamous toilet torcher, or a copycat, ramping up again?

Bay City News reports that the portable toilet was set ablaze around 6 p.m. Thursday at Lake Merced and Sunset Boulevards, and was soon put out by the SFPD.

As some of you will no doubt recall, some 27 porta-potties were set on fire over the course of a year starting in December 2008, and no one was ever charged with the crimes — though this 62-year-old homeless Asian woman was a suspect at one point.

Prior to the September 7 incidents in the Richmond, another porta-potty was set on fire in April in Noe Valley.

Let's hope this isn't a trend, or the beginning of another spree, because this could get seriously smelly.

[BCN/Appeal]