SUNNYVALE – Authorities on Monday arrested a 38-year-old homeless man on suspicion of setting more than a dozen fires in Sunnyvale.
Officers were initially called to the 800 block of South Mary Avenue, off El Camino Real, about 2:20 a.m. for a report of trashcans burning near a residence, according to Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety Capt. Dan Pistor.
In a news release, Pistor said the flames damaged a fence and a vehicle before they were extinguished.
The fire was determined to be “suspicious in nature,” Pistor said. Officers located security camera footage of a man setting the fire and searched the surrounding area for him.
Around 4:15 a.m., the department received reports of 11 trashcan fires burning at Washington Park at 840 West Washington Ave., Pistor said. Officers searched the surrounding area and found John Stahl near a bus stop at Mathilda and Olive avenues.
Pistor said Stahl was identified as the person who had set the fires. Stahl was arrested and booked into Santa Clara County jail on 13 counts of arson. He is being held on $425,000 bail at the Main Jail in San Jose and is due in court Wednesday, according to online jail records.
Anyone with information about the fires can contact Detective Scott McCulloch at 408-730-7119 or smcculloch@sunnyvale.ca.gov.
