- Austin businessman and dealership group owner Bryan Hardeman is charged with multiple arson counts.
- Authorities believe he set fire to several properties he once wanted to buy.
- This is his second arson-related arrest this year and he is awaiting a court date on June 12.
Residents of Austin, Texas are likely familiar with the companies that Bryan Hardeman co-founded in the 1960s. He is one of the men behind Continental Automotive, which owns multiple dealerships for Subaru, Mercedes, Audi, Honda, Infiniti, Jeep and more.
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Although he is retiring in 2017, it seems the 75-year-old is not content to sit at home and enjoy his wealth. He is now accused of several fires that, according to the Austin Fire Department (AFD), were started intentionally.
Authorities first arrested Hardeman on Feb. 29 on charges of aggravated arson and burglary. This was in response to a fire at a closed bike shop in downtown Austin. According to reports, in a video from the crime scene, an elderly man can be seen coming in with a can of gasoline, pouring it all over the property and then setting it on fire before watching him for some time. Surveillance cameras also show the arsonist leaving the crime scene in a white Mercedes-Benz SUV.
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Jeffrey Deane, then chief of the fire department’s fire investigation division, issued a statement to AutoNews. “This person we recognized as Hardeman [was] They carried a red container shaped like a five-gallon gasoline container inside the building and poured a liquid, a kind of liquid accelerator, into it, and shortly after that they dropped the matches, lit this liquid and started the fire.” Deane said of camera footage of the Feb. 25 arson. “He spent about 10 minutes there, which was quite a lot of time on a Sunday afternoon in broad daylight.”
Now authorities have arrested Hardeman again, this time on Wednesday, April 24, on two counts of first-degree arson and one count of second-degree arson. They believe he is responsible for a fire on Christmas Day, another on February 17th and another on February 20th.
In each case, the target appeared to be a property that Hardeman was once interested in purchasing. Will Hardeman, Bryan’s son and managing partner of Continental Automotive, responded to his father’s arrest: “While these allegations are very serious, we are still trying to separate fact from fiction.”
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