Man tries to set disabled wife on fire for not letting him buy more beer

Close confinement is testing the mettle of relationships across the land, especially where financial worries and the prospect of an uncertain future are added into the mix.

But as many look to be more open and forgiving with their partner, a minority are sadly driven to acts as extraordinary as the times.

If getting arrested for trying to set your better half on fire is anything to go by, it’s safe to say that New Mexico man Joe Macias is one of those not taking the current crisis well.

Albuquerque police responding last Wednesday around 8.30 p.m. to a family dispute at a mobile home park encountered the 63-year-old walking down the street with his clothes soaked in gasoline.

Officers then came across an even more alarming sight in a nearby trailer, according to The Albuquerque Journal: Macias’s disabled wife prostrate on the floor, her hair and pajamas similarly covered in gasoline.

The wife told police that Macias had come home around 5 p.m. with a four-pack of beer and was “upset because he did not qualify for the stimulus check” offering financial aid during the pandemic.

After finishing the beer, Macias asked to borrow his wife’s car keys so that he could stock up on more and continue to drown his monetary sorrows.

When she refused, he yelled “you’re going to pay the consequences” and stormed out. He returned a few hours later and pushed her to the floor.

Macias allegedly began pouring gasoline all over his disabled wife and their mobile home, while she lay on the floor unable to get up.

Next, he pulled out a cigarette and tried to light it several times, but didn’t manage as the lighter had already got wet with the gasoline, according to his wife.

Macias will surely be thankful in the cold light of day for his miraculous failure to ignite his gasoline-drenched wife.

What’s certain in this harrowing story is that, after his rage abates, the charges against him won’t have vanished: attempted murder, kidnapping and aggravated battery against a household member.