Police: Woman Finds Live Blow Torch Behind Her Apartment

A woman returned home Tuesday night to find a still-running blow torch behind her apartment. It wasn't hers.

The woman was playing with her dog shortly after returning home to her Forest Hills Apartment at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday when she found a yellow blow torch still emanating a blue flame, according to a police report.

The tool was apparently being used to breach the handle of a supply closet behind her apartment in an effort to steal items inside, police said. The handle had scorch marks on it, but was still intact.

The responding officer wrote in his report that he believes the suspected thief failed to gain entry, then set the blow torch on the ground still active because it required special tools to turn off.

A nearby tenant told police they noticed the blow torch on the ground where the woman found it more than an hour earlier.

An employee of the apartment complex told police that inside the closet was copper piping and the boiler room.

Authorities searched other supply closets in the vicinity and found that no others had been breached.