PNO: Fla. gay man nabbed for fake hate crime

[Tom Dempsey]

Fla. gay man nabbed for fake hate crime

In what authorities believe is an apparent insurance scam, a gay man in
central Florida is under arrest for staging what originally looked like
an anti-gay hate crime.

Polk County fire investigators said Christopher Michael Robertson
confessed to setting fire to the mobile home he shared with his partner
in Lakeland, Fla., this past July. Robertson confessed while in jail on
an unrelated incident.

Back in July, the couple said they had been out shopping and came back
to find their burnt home at the King Manor Mobile Home Park. "Die Fag"
had allegedly been written on the stairs leading into their home.
Several expensive items, including a laptop computer and television,
were also missing. At the time the two told police neighbors had
harassed them and made anti-gay threats in the past. The two had been
living in the mobile home park for about a year and a half.

Upon investigating, fire inspectors did find accelerants at the scene,
but they did not know exactly how the fire started. Neighbors
interviewed in the investigation said they hadn't actually seen anyone
start the fire, nor had they seen anything unusual at the mobile home.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/po/20051013/co_po/flagaymannabbedforfakehatecrime