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Penticton  

Autobody arson attack

One car is destroyed and several others are damaged after an early morning fire at Boyd Autobody and Glass Friday.

The attack is the third this week, all seemed to be focused on the same vehicle.

"It was a targeted attack for sure," operations manager Ryan Wuthe said. "The video surveillance shows two people breaking in through the front door and going straight to that car and lighting it on fire."

At the time of the attack there were at least 10 vehicles in the shop. The two criminals passed about eight of them to get to their target.

The fire follows a series of vandalisms and break-ins at Boyd Autobody this week. 

Around 3 a.m. on Monday, someone cut the back fence, broke a window and threw flammable materials such as oil cans on the floor of the shop near the car.

Then the person lit three fireworks inside the building in an apparent attempt to ignite the cans.

On Wednesday a window was broken, but nothing else appears to have been damaged. Wuthe said that could be because the now destroyed car was in the paint booth at the time and not visible from that part of the shop. 

"The car was already in for a vandalism claim," Wuthe said. "Someone had thrown rocks at it and kicked the car."

The other 10 or so vehicles that were inside at the time of the fire have been smoke damaged. 

The building was also heavily smoked damaged and Wuthe estimates they will be closed for a week or two cleaning up and having the windows and fence repaired.

"There are seven people employed here, we are not happy about it," he said. "It looks like we may be out of commission 

On Friday the front office was open and Wuthe was doing his best to take care of customers. 

"I want people to know that this vehicle was targeted, not our shop."

RCMP have the surveillance footage and are investigating the matter.

Sgt Rick Dellebuur said the owner of the torched vehicle is known to police. Although at this time they are unsure whether the attack was targeting the business or the vehicle itself.



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