Des Moines police say man threatened to set Post Office on fire

DES MOINES, Iowa - Des Moines police say a man is under arrest after showing up at the U.S. Post Office on 2nd Avenue with a gas can and then threatening to set the place on fire.

"It was about 12:45 this morning and the employees looked outside of an overhead door and they noticed a man standing there with a gas can in his hand. They went out and confronted him and asked him what he was doing and what he needed and he started dumping gas around the parking lot and yelling that he was going to set the place on fire," said Sergeant Paul Parizek with the Des Moines Police Department

Witnesses at the location say the man was asking where his wife was, but it is not certain why.

"The things he said and the things he did certainly don't make any sense and there was really no reason for him to be there. He really didn't have an axe to grind with the Postal Service. So, I'm not really sure exactly what brought him there but he did what he did and we took him to jail," said Parizek.

Parizek tells WHO Radio News 27-year-old Carlos Saldana was arrested a few blocks away when police caught up with him.

There was no fire reported.


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