Local Police Reports

Son Allegedly Sets Fire to Father’s West Suburban Home


CHICAGO–(ENEWSPF)–July 28, 2011 —Bond has been set at $400,000 for a Melrose Park man who burned down his father’s home, Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced Thursday.

David Neubauer

David Neubauer, 26, of the 9700 block of Dickens Avenue, has been charged with one count of arson.  He appeared in Maywood bond court Wednesday.        

On July 26th, Neubauer called his mother and told her he planned to burn down his father’s house, where he also lived, on the 9700 block of Dickens Avenue in Melrose Park.  Neubauer also contacted a family friend and asked him to come to the home.  When the friend arrived, Neubauer asked him to step into the home and smell the inside of the residence.  The friend later told police he smelled a strong odor of gasoline and quickly left the house.  Outside, he saw Neubauer holding two Molotov cocktails.  Neubauer then lit the two incendiary devices and threw them at the friend’s car, but they failed to detonate.  The family friend got into his vehicle, and saw that Neubauer had placed two plastic bottles filled with gasoline on the driver’s seat, and they had leaked into the car.  The victim threw the bottles out the window and left the scene.

Shortly thereafter, fire spread throughout the Dickens Avenue home, completely gutting the residence.  The Leyden Township Fire Department and Cook County Sheriff’s Police detectives quickly arrived on the scene.  Neubauer fled before police arrived, but was located at 25th and Franklin Avenues by officers with the Franklin Park Police Department.  During questioning, Neubauer admitted to Cook County Sheriff’s Police investigators that he doused his father’s home in gasoline, and threw the Molotov cocktails into the family friend’s vehicle.  The Illinois State Fire Marshal is investigating the exact cause of the blaze at the home.

Neubauer’s next court date is July 28th in Maywood.

Source: cookcountysheriff.org


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