Blaze Believed Set to Cover Up Theft of $50,000 Cash

Sunday morning started off poorly for Fathi Alquza, a swap meet vendor from Buena Park.

One of Alquza’s employees failed to show up Sunday morning at the swap meet where he was working. The employee had a truck Alquza needed, so he had to return to his home on Fillmore Drive to get a larger vehicle.

When Alquza got home, he discovered that the house he shares with his wife and four children, plus his brother and his wife, was on fire. Buena Park fire crews saved the house, which was empty of people, from serious damage. But there was more bad news:

The fire, which started between 6:30 and 7 a.m., had apparently been set by a burglar to cover up a theft. Police said the thief apparently made off with at least $50,000 in cash that the Alquzas had hidden in the house.

‘We’re Still Counting’

Police did not release details about how much money Alquza said he started out with. They said they can determine how much money is missing only by having Alquza tell them how much cash the burglar apparently missed.

“We’re still counting,” said Buena Park watch commander Tony Kelly. “But right now we’re putting the missing money at about $50,000.”

Kelly said that the Alquzas apparently were the kind of people who did not trust their money to banks, but kept it all hidden inside their home.

Was this a case of an early-morning burglar looking for a television to hock and coming across a gold mine?

“We don’t think so,” Kelly said. “This has all the marks of a job by someone who had some knowledge of what he was looking for.”

Sunday Burglary

For one thing, Kelly said, “most thieves don’t break into a house (after daybreak) on a Sunday morning.”

The fire broke out in a corner bedroom and was quickly contained by the Buena Park Fire Department after neighbors spotted the flames. Damage to the house and contents--other than the missing money--was estimated at about $60,000.

The Alquzas had iron bars on their windows. But the bars on one of the bedroom windows had been sawed off, apparently with a hacksaw, police said.

Alquza later sat with his head down while talking to a neighbor just outside his garage.

When he was asked by a Times reporter about the missing money, he looked up startled and said, “No, don’t print that. There was no missing money.”

But by then Alquza had already reported the missing funds to police.

Alquza said he did not want any publicity because of some contractual problems he was having over items he was selling at the swap meet.

Alquza said he and his wife and four children had left for the swap meet early in the morning, and that his brother and his wife had left the house early to go to work.

“Am I upset? Of course I’m upset,” he said. He said he was upset about the fire and the fact that a thief had broken into the house.

Alquza said he bought the house in 1985. He added that this was the first time he had ever known of a burglary in his neighborhood.

Police said no one reported seeing the thief working on the bars, or leaving the house. As of Sunday evening, Kelly said, police had made no arrests and had no suspects.