A man incensed by the tall grass in his neighbor’s lawn took out his frustrations in a big way: he doused their house in gasoline and set it on fire.
That’s according Cartersville, Georgia homeowner Marty Corbitt and his 3-year-old daughter Kylie, who were terrorized and still inside the house when neighbor Phillip Bennett, 58, flew into a rage and set it aflame.
‘The mean man burned down my house,’ Kylie told reporters as she clung to her father in front of their gutted home.
Marty Corbitt told WXIA that, before the incident, Bennett had been a good neighbor who lived across the street from the Corbitts for about four years.
But then a week of animosity over Corbitt’s unkempt lawn spilled over and Bennett approached Corbitt Wednesday morning and threatened to kill him.
And that was just the start of it.
‘He kicks my door, tells me I've got five seconds to come outside,’ Corbitt told reporters.
Bennett then left as Corbitt called 911, only to return carrying two canisters of gasoline and smashes a pane of glass in the Corbitt’s kitchen door.
‘Then, he turns around and grabs a brick, throws it through the window. And then he grabs a gas can and starts pouring it into the kitchen. And as he's pouring he takes his lighter and lights it. And flames were everywhere,’ Corbitt said.
The husband and father of one ran to his daughter’s room and fled with her to another neighbor’s house.
‘And watched the house burn,’ he said.
Video footage and photographs from the Facebook page of WGHF radio show fire fighters at the scene, battling to tame the flames. But the home was a total loss.
Corbitt’s wife Katie was at work at the time of the alleged arson and told reporters her chief concern was the safety of her daughter.
‘The fact that my little girl was in the house when he started that fire,’ she told KARE11, while fighting back tears.
Bennett fled his home and was considered by police Capt. Mark Camp as armed and dangerous ‘due to past criminal history.’
On Wednesday afternoon, police were able to make contact with him by phone and tried to convince him to surrender.
Then, on Thursday, Bennett turned himself in to U.S. Marshals in Murphy, North Carolina. He is now in a county jail awaiting transport back to Georgia.
The Corbitts are staying with relatives.
That’s according Cartersville, Georgia homeowner Marty Corbitt and his 3-year-old daughter Kylie, who were terrorized and still inside the house when neighbor Phillip Bennett, 58, flew into a rage and set it aflame.
‘The mean man burned down my house,’ Kylie told reporters as she clung to her father in front of their gutted home.
Marty Corbitt told WXIA that, before the incident, Bennett had been a good neighbor who lived across the street from the Corbitts for about four years.
But then a week of animosity over Corbitt’s unkempt lawn spilled over and Bennett approached Corbitt Wednesday morning and threatened to kill him.
And that was just the start of it.
‘He kicks my door, tells me I've got five seconds to come outside,’ Corbitt told reporters.
Bennett then left as Corbitt called 911, only to return carrying two canisters of gasoline and smashes a pane of glass in the Corbitt’s kitchen door.
‘Then, he turns around and grabs a brick, throws it through the window. And then he grabs a gas can and starts pouring it into the kitchen. And as he's pouring he takes his lighter and lights it. And flames were everywhere,’ Corbitt said.
The husband and father of one ran to his daughter’s room and fled with her to another neighbor’s house.
‘And watched the house burn,’ he said.
Video footage and photographs from the Facebook page of WGHF radio show fire fighters at the scene, battling to tame the flames. But the home was a total loss.
Corbitt’s wife Katie was at work at the time of the alleged arson and told reporters her chief concern was the safety of her daughter.
‘The fact that my little girl was in the house when he started that fire,’ she told KARE11, while fighting back tears.
Bennett fled his home and was considered by police Capt. Mark Camp as armed and dangerous ‘due to past criminal history.’
On Wednesday afternoon, police were able to make contact with him by phone and tried to convince him to surrender.
Then, on Thursday, Bennett turned himself in to U.S. Marshals in Murphy, North Carolina. He is now in a county jail awaiting transport back to Georgia.
The Corbitts are staying with relatives.
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