WILTON — A local man is accused of lighting a receipt for chips and Chapstick on fire and throwing it onto the floor in the entryway at Dollar General on Route 2 on Thursday.
A customer stomped out the fire and alerted the clerk, according to an affidavit filed by state fire investigator Jeremy Damren with the Franklin County court.
James C. Valesh, 49, of Depot Street in Wilton was arrested on a charge of arson. A conviction on an arson charge is punishable by a maximum of 30 years in prison.
Wilton Sgt. Chad Abbott responded to the store just before 4 p.m. after receiving a call that a customer had lit his receipt on fire in the entryway of Dollar General.
Abbott told Damren and state fire investigator Ken MacMaster, both from the Office of the Maine State Fire Marshal, that when he arrived he spoke with store clerks and watched a video. Abbott recognized Valesh but did not see Valesh light his receipt on fire in the video, according to an affidavit.
Abbott collected the remains of the receipt and turned the evidence over to Damren.
A clerk who had been working the front registers when she noticed a man come in told Damren he walked around the store for about an hour.
The man bought two bags of chips and Chapstick, the clerk told Damren.
When the man walked out, she saw him light a cigarette or cigar. Shortly after that a customer told her that the same man had just lit his receipt on fire and threw it on the floor of the entryway, Damren wrote.
MacMaster conducted a telephone interview with the customer who stomped out the fire. He told MacMaster that he was a customer at the store and was behind the man in the checkout aisle.
As the man, later identified as Valesh, walked out the first door and into the entryway he saw a flame and saw the man light a cigarette.
The customer thought it was odd that the cigarette was lit while the man was in the entryway, according to the affidavit. The customer told investigators he saw the man light a piece of paper with a lighter and drop it onto the floor where it remained burning. He saw Valesh walk out the second door and into the parking lot.
The customer told MacMaster he was worried that the lit paper was near sales items that could easily catch fire. He picked up the burnt receipt and gave it to the clerk.
Valesh was being held on $5,000 cash bail Friday at the Franklin County Detention Center in Farmington. He is scheduled to go before a judge later in the day.
Damren asked that bail conditions include that Valesh not return to Dollar General and have no contact with any witnesses and not to use or possess incendiary devices of any kind.
dperry@sunmediagroup.net
James Valesh (Franklin County Detention Center)
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