Woman set fire to apartment because boyfriend smoked all the marijuana

A Chicago woman pleaded guilty on Wednesday to starting a fire inside a west suburban apartment last year because she was mad at her boyfriend for smoking all their marijuana. Linda B. Lopez, 35, pleaded guilty to residential arson, according to a statement from Riverside police.

She had initially been charged with aggravated arson, but the charge was reduced. Lopez had been living in an apartment in Harlem in Riverside for two weeks when she started the fire on April 28, 2013. She told police she fell asleep, and when she woke up, her marijuana was gone.



She accused her live-in boyfriend, and the argument turned violent, with Lopez punching and threatening to stab him with a knife. She then punctured a plastic perfume bottle, poured the perfume on some towels in the hallway and set the towels on fire. The Riverside Fire Department quickly put out the blaze, which damaged an apartment door, wall and floor; and the adjacent hallway.

Police learned that Lopez had been staying in the apartment after the previous tenant, whom they knew, moved out with rent paid through the end of the month. The couple had been “partying and consuming large amounts of heroin on a daily basis,” according to the statement. Lopez was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution.