Eideard

Coppers still searching for Davis [L] – Ortiz [R] sits in the slammer

Police arrested a suspect in an arsonist-for-hire in Titusville after they said he made a critical mistake — he left the tip of his finger at the scene of the crime.

Meanwhile, detectives are seeking the public’s help in finding the man they say was trying to pull off an insurance scam by burning down his house.

Police were called to a fire at a home on North Dixie Avenue about 11:15 a.m. Saturday. While they were investigating, police said, they discovered evidence of accelerants, leading them to determine that the fire was likely an arson.

Then, while sifting through evidence, officers got a tip — literally. They found a piece of a latex glove with the tip of a finger inside.

Police said they found their suspect at a local hospital. They matched the tip to 24-year-old Ismael Ortiz, who detectives said quickly confessed. But how did the suspect clip his tip? Detective Jessica Edens explained: Trying to flee after setting the fire, “he slammed his finger in the door,” Edens said, “and it cut the tip of his finger off.”

Police said Ortiz told detectives he was hired by a resident of the home, Samuel “Sammy” Davis. Investigators said Davis hired Ortiz to burn down the house so he could collect on a renters insurance policy…

Edens said Ortiz was arrested and booked into the Brevard County Jail.

I guess you get what you pay for – even when hiring a crook.

A convicted arsonist who escaped from prison by clinging to the underside of a security van has been re-arrested, police said.

Julien Chautard, 39, was arrested in the Piccadilly area of central London shortly after his friends and family encouraged him to call police, a Scotland Yard spokesman said.

Chautard was sentenced to seven years in jail at Snaresbrook Crown Court last week but spent just minutes inside Pentonville prison in north London after slipping out underneath the van he had arrived in…

He rang Islington CID on a number of occasions and told Detective Inspector Yasmin Lalani that he would be in the Piccadilly area. He was arrested at 8.50am.

Prison officials launched an inquiry into how staff failed to notice his disappearance from a group of new inmates following the escape on March 27. It is thought he crawled underneath the van and clung on as it was driven back through the “airlock” separating the jail from the outside world. His getaway remained a mystery for seven hours as the prison was scoured by officers ordered to stay until 2am the next day.

It’s almost silly to say he was re-arrested. After all, he rang up the coppers and told them to come and pick him up.