BATON ROUGE, La. – A man from Stonewall, Louisiana, has been arrested and charged with arson after authorities allege he intentionally set his pickup truck on fire in an attempt to commit insurance fraud.
According to State Fire Marshal deputies, 44-year-old Thomas Tyler admitted to deliberately setting his 2024 Chevrolet 1500 pickup ablaze with the intention of collecting insurance money. Tyler was booked into the DeSoto Parish Detention Center on Monday on a charge of arson with intent to defraud.
The incident occurred just after 4 a.m. on January 11th on Interstate 49 near the Mansfield exit. Firefighters from DeSoto Fire District No. 8 found the pickup truck fully engulfed in flames upon their arrival. State Fire Marshal deputies also responded to the scene and initially questioned Tyler. During the initial questioning, Tyler claimed that he had discarded a cigarette from the truck window, which then ignited a gas can located in the truck bed. However, during the subsequent investigation, Tyler recanted his initial story and confessed to the crime, as stated by the state fire marshal’s office.
