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September 25, 2009

An optometrist, who supposedly acts differently when he’s off his meds, arrested in Walnut Creek arson cases

A 51-year-old man who until recently worked at an Ygnacio Valley Road optometry practice has been arrested in connection with setting fire to a fast-food restaurant and the Comcast services building late Wednesday and early.

Walnut Creek police identified the suspect as Scott David Weinberg. He was arrested outside his Walnut Creek home Thursday afternoon and booked into County Jail in Martinez with bail set at $300,000.

Police told KTVU they have a surveillance video that shows Weinberg at the scene of the fire at Wendy’s restaurant on North Main Street late Wednesday night. He is also suspected of started the one-alarm fire at the Comcast on Arroyo Road, which caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to computer equipment and temporarily knocked out power to nearly 40,000 cable customers. According to news reports, police also think Weinberg might have also set a small fire at a Dumpster behind a Walnut Creek bank several weeks ago.

Neighbors told KTVU that Weinberg had an unspecified medical condition and that he behaves differently when he’s not taking his medication for it.

UPDATE: The Contra Costa District Attorney's Office has filed six felony and one misdemeanor charge against Weinberg, Walnut Creek police Sgt. Tom Cashion says. The charges are four counts of arson, one count of resisting arrest, one count of possession of a deadly weapon, and a misdemeanor count of petty theft. Bail has been set at $1.4 million.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Weird. I'm glad they cought him.

Anonymous said...

I feel sorry for all these folks getting so outed and exposed in the paper and blogs.. Picked over. On platters.
Very personal and private matters, of which most of us (media included) know very little; really.

Anonymous said...

Don't do the crimes and you won't be exposed. We do know from the police the guy was on video committing the crime.

Anonymous said...

OMG I went to this guy for an eye problem about 6 months ago. He was very personable and thought he was a nice guy. Goes to show, stay on the meds....