2 Cars Set On Fire In Lakewood; Authorities Investigating

LAKEWOOD, NJ — Arson has been determined as the cause of a pair of car fires that happened late Sunday night in Lakewood, authorities said Monday afternoon.

But the two fires, which were set to cars about 2 miles apart, do not appear to be motivated by bias against any specific group, Lakewood Detective Lt. Gregory Staffordsmith said Monday.

Lakewood police and firefighters responded to a report of a fire about 11:20 p.m. Sunday on Miller Road and found a gray 2009 Hyundai Sonata that had fire damage to its roof, said Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office. While authorities were investigating the first fire, they learned of a second fire to a vehicle on Iroquois Place. A 2002 Toyota Camry was found with fire damage on the outside of the car, he said.

Staffordsmith said both fires have been deemed arson following the investigation by the New Jersey State Fire Marshal K-9 Unit, the Ocean County Fire Marshal's Office and Ocean County Criminal Investigations Unit.

"However, there is nothing to suggest that the incidents were biasly motivated or linked to any specific group or any other specific incident," Staffordsmith said.

Tensions have been high in Lakewood in the wake of the arrests of 13 couples on charges they hid income to take public assistance they weren't entitled to receive. An anti-Semitic banner was draped over the Holocaust memorial outside Congregation Sons of Israel two weeks ago, and at the same time, fliers with the mug shots of some of those arrested in the investigation and bearing anti-Semitic messages were distributed around the township. The banner and fliers made reference to a white supremacist group; no one has been charged in connection with those incidents.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Lakewood Detective Michael Mooney Jr. at 732-363-0200 or the prosecutor's office at 732-929-2027.

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