LEXINGTON, MASS. (WHDH) - A Lexington man accused of setting his manager’s car on fire and stealing $800 from the business he worked for has been ordered held on $7,500 cash bail, officials said.
Mustafa Syed, 50, was arraigned Tuesday in Concord District Court on charges of larceny from a building, breaking into a depository, larceny under $1,200, and burning of a motor vehicle in connection with a May 10 fire near Peet’s Coffee on Massachusetts Avenue in Lexington, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan’s Office.
Police and firefighters responding to a reported fire about 5:06 p.m. found a Honda Accord completely engulfed in flames in a parking lot on Massachusetts Avenue. Soon after, officers located a van that had also sustained fire damage and deemed the incident suspicious, Ryan’s Office said.
After obtaining surveillance video from nearby businesses, investigators determined that Syed bought a lighter at a CVS Pharmacy minutes before the fire and then walked over to the parking lot, where he set the vehicle ablaze, according to Ryan’s Office.
The following day, the manager called Lexington police to report that $800 was missing from a safe at Peet’s Coffee. A review of surveillance video from inside the store showed Syed, who previously worked for the business, had accessed the safe the day before, according to Ryan’s Office.
This incident is being investigated by the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, Lexington Police, Massachusetts State Police and the State Fire Marshall’s Office.
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