Public documents shed new information on Penn College student charged with arson
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While reporting to the Pennsylvania College of Technology police on Nov. 6 that his bicycle had been stolen, Jacob Fichter volunteered "several statements that he wanted his bike back to search for the arsonist so that he could make 'a citizen's arrest,'" court documents made public Monday stated.
However, nine days later, on Friday night it was the 22-year-old Fichter, a Penn College student, who ended up in handcuffs and arraigned on charges in connection with a series of four intentionally set fires, according to city Patrolman Andrew Stevens, who made the arrest.
Fichter is from Chadds Ford, a small community outside Philadelphia that spans both Delaware and Chester counties, but he had a local address in the 1200 block of Memorial Avenue.
With evidence collected from videos as well as clothing and other items seized at Fichter's apartment and his van when officers executed a search warrant, Stevens tied Fichter to at least four intentionally set fires that occurred on Nov. 4 or Nov. 5, it was stated in an affidavit.
"Fichter intentionally set fire to two parked vans in the parking garage at 115 W. Third St. on Nov. 4. He also allegedly set fire to a couch that was up against a vehicle that was parked several feet from an occupied apartment building" in the 1000 block of Vine Avenue on the same day, Stevens said in a criminal complaint.
Police have charged the student with setting fire to a pickup truck that was parked on the west side of the Pajama Factory, 1307 Park Ave., also on Nov. 4.
Stevens alleges that on the next day, Fichter set a fire "in a construction-style dumpster that endangered an unoccupied garage several feet away" on Seth Street, just north of the 1300 block of West Fourth Street, court documents stated.
Investigators said Fichter has admitted to setting two of the fires, and that he was "at the other incidents and observed them happening, but stated that he 'blacks out' and does not remember if he started them or not," Stevens wrote in an affidavit.
Fichter remains incarcerated in the Lycoming County Prison in lieu of $200,000 bail, charged with felony arson and related offenses.