Local authorities have accused Richard Daniel Rick Jr., 33, who lives in the community on Gilbertsville Road, with arson, risking a catastrophe and criminal mischief.

          Douglass Township police also charged Rick with misdemeanor theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, disorderly conduct and possession of an instrument of crime, as well as summary dangerous burning following a Sept. 22 incident at Avante Apartments.

            At 9:20 p.m., officers were dispatched to the Avante Apartments for a fire investigation. At the scene, they claim to have discovered a mattress on fire while on top of a landscape trailer parked close to the "C" building near the northern entrance to Gilbertsville Road. The trailer contained a spare tire, cases of tile, cases of caulk, and other remodeling supplies.

            After extinguishing the blaze, officers claimed to have recovered an open five-gallon gas container immediately near the scene that had a cut plastic bottle near it that smelled of gasoline and appeared to be used as a funnel.

            Rick Smith, the township's fire marshal, determined that the cause of the fire was arson and was intentionally set, according to the police criminal complaint filed in the Douglass Township court of District Judge Maurice Saylor.

            At the scene, multiple complex residents told officers the tires on their vehicles had been deflated. Authorities claim the community's property manager reported seeing Rick near the trailer before it was set on fire.

            According to police, a review of the surveillance cameras found Rick walking around the parking lot at 7:25 p.m. He is observed wearing a red or orange, hooded sweatshirt with the hood up, black pants, and white shoes while kneeling next to a vehicle that was discovered to have a deflated tire.

            At 9:08 p.m., Rick is observed, shirtless, removing a gas can from the truck bed of a black Toyota Tacoma owned by someone else.

            Officers claim to have attempted to speak with Rick and knocked on the door. They heard movement inside the residence, but there was no answer at the door, according to the affidavit of probable cause.

            The following morning, an officer responded at 8 a.m. to the community after learning that multiple cable connections near the "A" building of the property had been severed and wires to several stand-alone satellite dishes had been cut.

            Additionally, the officer discovered that some of the power boxes attached to the apartments had been removed and some wires inside the power boxes had been cut.

            Rick remains in Montgomery County jail after Oreland District Judge Katherine E. McGill set bail in the case following a Sept. 24 preliminary hearing. A preliminary hearing in the case, before Saylor, has been scheduled for 9 a.m. on Oct. 8.