[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish teens arrested in parish government-owned building fire, burglary

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish teens arrested in parish government-owned building fire,
burglary
Print Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Benjamin
Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
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on September 11, 2013 at 4:50 PM, updated September 11, 2013 at 5:48 PM

After allegedly attempting to set another fire after a second small-time
burglary on Tuesday, two St. Bernard Parish teenagers were arrested on arson
and burglary charges in connection with Monday's fire in a parish
government-owned building, according to the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office.

Michael Riedel, 18, of Violet, and Brandon Ricouard, 17, of Chalmette,
apparently were looking for money when they broke into the Victory Lane
Raceway at 8540 Victory Drive on Monday morning, authorities said. The
business, which leased its space from the parish, sold and rented miniature,
remote-controlled cars and held races with them inside the former Vista Park
playground gymnasium.

Riedel and Ricouard are accused of stealing $30 and a digital camera memory
card. Then, the duo set the place on fire to cover-up their break-in,
Sheriff Jimmy Pohlmann said.

After the Sheriff's Office received a call about suspicious people behind a
Chalmette business on Tuesday evening and questioned the duo, the teens told
the officers that they had been selling cellphones to a nearby business that
buys used phones, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff's officials later determined that those phones had come from a car
burglarized near Paris Road in Chalmette earlier Tuesday, and that the teens
apparently had tried to set fire to that car after the burglary but that
fire had gone out, according to the Sheriff's Office.

So, seeing a potential connection to the Victory Lane Raceway burglary and
fire, sheriff's detectives learned the teenagers had been staying at a
Chalmette motel and obtained the permission of one of their mothers to
search their room, leading to the discovery of the camera memory card.

That memory card contained photos of the miniature vehicle racetrack,
according to the Sheriff's Office. Sheriff's officers also found a handgun
in that motel room, reports said.


Both teenagers also were booked with burglary of a car, attempted arson of a
car, and possession of stolen property.

"It was good police work and everything fell into place,'' Pohlmann said.

Under questioning, Riedel admitted to both burglaries, the arson and the
attempted arson, and he said Ricouard also was present for the crimes,
according to Pohlmann.

At the time of Tuesday's arrest, Riedel was out on bond from a recent arrest
on a charge of possession of illegal psychedelic mushrooms.

Both he and Ricouard were being held in St. Bernard Parish Prison on
Wednesday afternoon in lieu of $76,000 bonds.