{"id":38984,"date":"2023-11-16T12:03:45","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T17:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=38984"},"modified":"2023-11-16T13:33:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T18:33:37","slug":"man-arrested-for-arson-after-lighting-lakeland-food-pantry-on-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/11\/16\/man-arrested-for-arson-after-lighting-lakeland-food-pantry-on-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Man arrested for arson after lighting Lakeland food pantry on fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A man lit a food pantry on fire Wednesday night in the area of Combee Road near Ellis Avenue in Lakeland causing around $150,000 in damage, according to the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"480\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Gorden.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-38985\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Gorden.jpg 400w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Gorden-250x300.jpg 250w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gorden Nelson, 60, was caught on camera, by a nearby business owner\u2019s cameras, sitting on a bicycle next to a stack of pallets at 2938 Combee Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/arson2.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-38988\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nelson was seen moving toward the pallet and trying to ignite the pallets with an \u201copened flamed type device,\u201d deputies said.<\/p>\n\n\n        \n        <div class=\"embedpress-gutenberg-wrapper source-provider-Youtube aligncenter ep-clear   ep-content-protection-disabled inline\" id=\"feb90ff7-f6f0-4b80-b7ae-01d0e681bed8\" data-embed-type=\"Youtube \">\n            <div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper \">\n                <div id=\"ep-gutenberg-content-2c21f033d777fda493edd4b5ce16487f\" class=\"ep-gutenberg-content\">\n                    <div >\n                        <div class=\"ep-embed-content-wraper preset-default insta-grid ep-google-photos-carousel\"\n                            style=\"max-width:600px;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto\"                                                                                                                >\n\n                            <div class=\"ose-youtube ose-uid-a84bc2208d13606acb061e3697223538 ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:600px; height:340px; max-height:340px; max-width:100%; display:inline-block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" title=\"Arson on South Combee\" width=\"600\" height=\"340\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FmIchEU1XkY?feature=oembed&#038;color=red&#038;rel=1&#038;controls=2&#038;start=true&#038;end=true&#038;fs=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; encrypted-media;accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;gyroscope;picture-in-picture clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen title=\"Man arrested for arson after lighting Lakeland food pantry on fire\"><\/iframe><\/div>                        <\/div>\n\n                                            <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    \n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He then rides away on the bike as the pallets burn. Nelson left the area when law enforcement arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Deputies said several witnesses watched Nelson and were able to match his description to authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/arson.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-38989\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When deputies approached Nelson, he told officials that he went to a nearby store, started the fire, sat, and watched. When the deputy asked why he started the fire, Nelson said he didn\u2019t start the fire and only watched it after it started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, an orange lighter was then discovered in Nelson\u2019s left pocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His ex-wife, Cheryl Nelson, who was shown the footage, confirmed Nelson as the suspect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nelson was arrested at 1:30 a.m. Thursday morning on Fletcher Avenue in Lakeland and charged with first-degree arson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/arson3.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-38990\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A man lit a food pantry on fire Wednesday night in the area of Combee Road near Ellis Avenue in Lakeland causing around $150,000 in damage, according to the Polk&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[6760],"class_list":["post-38984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-man-arrested-for-arson-after-lighting-lakeland-food-pantry-on-fire"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}