https://www.hmbreview.com/news/arso...cle_bccaead8-82d4-11e8-b157-ff5ee2d04a64.html
Hat tip to Muriel for the story. Speaking of stories, this one reminds me of yet another incident from my experiences living in the "country". I got up before light one morning, because my neighbor came over to ask if my house was on fire. Her kid was spending the night with my kid, so she was rightfully concerned. I could smell the smoke, too, so I went out to look for the fire. My neighborhood was just a little pocket of a dozen or so homes surrounded by fields on one side and a highway and lake on the other. It didn't take long for me to walk the entire thing and I could find no fire. The smoke was disturbingly thick and we knew there was a fire somewhere, so she stayed with the kids while I drove off in my car. I found the source a 1/4 mile down the road where about 10 hay bales were on fire. I'm guessing someone threw out a cig or something, but I never found out what caused it.
San Mateo County Sheriff's deputies have arrested an El Granada woman, accusing her of setting fire to hundreds of hay bales in Half Moon Bay [....]
Monica Louise Berlin, 39, was taken in to custody on the 300 block of Fletcher Avenue in Atherton after a chase that wound south from the Coastside.
[....]
Before her arrest, she filmed the inside of her car during the chase and posted it to Facebook Live.
[....]
The video remained online until Sunday morning; it is no longer available. In it, she sounded distraught, saying that the police were chasing her because she was "covering this criminal conspiracy" and that she was scared. The video lasted for about a minute and showed her in a yellow shirt and driving. Papers on the passenger seat slid off onto the floor as she drove away from authorities.
She was taken into custody and transferred to San Mateo County jail where she remains on charges of arson, eluding police and two unrelated warrants from San Francisco.
[....]
Berlin's most recent legal problems started with a hay bale fire near the intersection of Highway 1 and Seymour Street on the night of June 26. Nine-hundred bales were involved and the loss was put at $10,800. Initially, one fire official suggested the hay might have caught fire by spontaneous combustion, a chemical reaction that can occur in certain conditions. That determination changed with a second fire in the same location that occurred overnight on July 3. This one consumed another 765 bales worth $9,180.
There were no injuries associated with either fire and no structures burned, though the fires were in the vicinity of a grove of highly flammable eucalyptus and homes.
By then, investigators say they suspected arson in both fires.
It was not immediately clear why authorities began to suspect Berlin, but one resident living near the fire scenes says she had been behaving erratically in the days leading up to her arrest.
Mike Alifano says he saw Berlin at the fire scene the night of June 26. He said he suspected Berlin had mental health issues due to previous encounters on social media. He said that night she "looked possessed," filming the fire scene from the middle of the street. He said deputies had to tell her to stay back.
Alifano says he thought the first fire was an isolated incident.
[....]
He says on July 3, Berlin made it past the Ocean Colony gate and to the side door of his parents' house. Alifano says his mother, Anong Alifano, let Berlin into her home and that Berlin told her that Mike Alifano and his family was kidnapped. His mother knew better, and at that point, she asked Berlin to leave.
A neighbor also told Mike Alifano that Berlin was at his home that day, while the family was away. The neighbor said she was attempting to climb the fence and shaking the gate violently.
The next day, a sheriff's deputy called Alifano to say Berlin reported he and his family missing. Authorities began looking for her then.
Alifano said he heard that she might have burned the hay because she thought it would be used by cults to block roads in Half Moon Bay. Alifano says she has referenced cults and "zombies" in previous communications with him. After those communications, he blocked her on social media.
"There were a lot of red flags," Alifano said on Sunday, "but until she commits a crime it's hard to do anything about it."
Hat tip to Muriel for the story. Speaking of stories, this one reminds me of yet another incident from my experiences living in the "country". I got up before light one morning, because my neighbor came over to ask if my house was on fire. Her kid was spending the night with my kid, so she was rightfully concerned. I could smell the smoke, too, so I went out to look for the fire. My neighborhood was just a little pocket of a dozen or so homes surrounded by fields on one side and a highway and lake on the other. It didn't take long for me to walk the entire thing and I could find no fire. The smoke was disturbingly thick and we knew there was a fire somewhere, so she stayed with the kids while I drove off in my car. I found the source a 1/4 mile down the road where about 10 hay bales were on fire. I'm guessing someone threw out a cig or something, but I never found out what caused it.