Man sets fire to grandmother’s home, closes dogs in burning bedroom

“You can choose your friends but you sho’ can’t choose your family,” Atticus Finch notes in Harper Lee’s classic.

When relations between different generations of the same clan become strained, we do well to remind ourselves that one doesn’t always have to like a family member to love them.

Yet it remains to be seen whether one Tennessee gentleman will be able to patch things up with his own grandmother.

It’s certainly safe to say he’s got plenty of explaining to do after allegedly setting fire to her place and trying to trap her two dogs in the blaze.

30-year-old Douglas Matthew Sneed waltzed into his grandmother’s home in East Ridge through an unlocked back door on May 5.

Whatever the gripe, if any, with his grandmother, the man’s intention was clear: to cause a lot of damage.

He smashed up a lamp and computer, and set fire to the bed in the front bedroom, according to a police report.

Sneed then allegedly forced his grandmother’s two dogs into the burning room before shutting the door.

Police called to the scene witnessed smoke coming from the house, WTVC reported.

Sneed’s grandmother told officers that her two dogs had been closed inside the room where the fire started. Thankfully, the pets were rescued in time and didn’t sustain any serious injuries, and the blaze was contained before it got out of hand.

The woman also told police that a bottle of vodka had gone missing, and only her grandson knew where it was kept.

That bottle proved just the ticket for the screwball Sneed to cause another stir nearby.

After the alleged arson incident, he headed to a local diner and tried ordering a beer but was refused for not having ID, according to the police report.

Staff at the diner told Sneed to leave after he dropped a bottle of booze on the floor. He complied, but not before asking for matches, a request they wisely ignored.

Sneed then demonstrated his great annoyance with the establishment by pouring alcohol up and down the sidewalk right outside, before tossing the empty bottle back at the diner.

Officers alerted to the fracas recovered the bottle, later matching it with the vodka bottle stolen from the grandmother’s house.

Sneed was eventually arrested May 13 and charged with aggravated arson, arson, aggravated burglary, aggravated cruelty to animals, and vandalism.

He sadly showed in his mugshot that he’d already done more than enough to stand out from the crowd without the redundant arson rap.

East Ridge, Tennessee, is city of around 21,000 people bordering Chattanooga to the west, north, and east, and the Georgia state line to the south.