By Jonathan D. Silver
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
CARNEGIE, Pa. — A Carnegie man has been charged with arson and having weapons of mass destruction after police say he tried Wednesday to burn down a clothing store in the borough using a Molotov cocktail fashioned from a mason jar and a Sterno-like gel.
Stanley Patterson, 63, of Hulton Street was arraigned Thursday afternoon on those charges and criminal attempt. Bond was set at $35,000.
Allegheny County Police are also looking at Mr. Patterson as a suspect in a massive fire four days earlier in Scott in the 200 block of Noblestown Road that destroyed seven residences and left about 20 people homeless.
In an affidavit, county police said someone tried to throw a lit device into Hanna’s Clothing Store in the 300 block of West Main Street, around 1:40 a.m. Wednesday.
But neither the glass of the jar nor on the door broke.
“Nothing shattered and it didn’t catch fire. We’re lucky,” Philip Hanna, the men’s store’s third-generation owner, said today. “I would have been forced to retire early.”
Mr. Hanna said his security system alerted him that something was amiss.
Surveillance video from the store captured the image of a light-colored minivan missing a rear passenger-side hub cap driving by, and then a person with dark hair and facial hair tossing the improvised explosive.
Twenty minutes later, a Scott police officer driving through Heidelberg within a mile of Hanna’s passed a van that attracted his attention; he was aware of surveillance video of a vehicle spotted at the Scott fire.
Curious, the officer followed the van to Mr. Patterson’s house and identified him through his driver’s license photo as matching the suspect description in the video from Hanna’s. Police found that the vehicle bore similarities to the one observed at both crime scenes, the affidavit said.
On Wednesday, police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives executed search warrants on Mr. Patterson’s van and home. A piece of ripped cloth was recovered from the vehicle; police said it matched the cloth used as a wick in the Hanna’s case. Investigators also recovered a camouflage-hooded coat containing a lighter that police say matched the one seen on the video from the attempted arson in Carnegie.
Mr. Patterson told police that he might have been out in his van early Wednesday to go shopping at a Walmart.
Mr. Hanna said he did not know Mr. Patterson and had no idea why his store would be targeted.
“They just tell me he was nuts,” Mr. Hanna said.
Mr. Patterson, who was ordered to be evaluated at the behavior clinic, remains in the county jail.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 7.
State Department of Corrections records show that Mr. Patterson served time in prison in the late 1970s and mid-1980s for robbery and burglary. Online court records show that Mr. Patterson has been charged with crimes in at least nine cases dating to 1974, but many were dismissed or dropped.
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