The front cabs of 17 private trash trucks have been set ablaze in Brooklyn in the past two months — including seven early Sunday — and investigators say an “internal beef’’ may be behind the arsons.
The windows of the 18-wheeler cabs torched in East New York on Sunday looked like they were smashed in by molotov cocktails, which then burst into flames, leaving at least one truck a bombed-out, smoldering metal shell.
“They really wanted to destroy it,’’ worker Rafael Bulderon said of the badly burned-out cab.
One of the owners of the cabs said it was the second time his vehicles have been torched in the neighborhood.
“It’s crazy because there are security cameras on all the buildings,” said Ricardo Caballan, whose company is called Jahali.
Caballan added that he has no idea why his cabs are among those being targeted.
Police said five of the independently owned cabs targeted Sunday were hired by TTS Trucking of Newark to haul waste from the city to Pennsylvania. The other two cabs had “East Trucking’’ written on them, but The Post couldn’t find any such company.
The first explosion occurred at 2:30 a.m., and police say within an hour, six more cabs parked at various streets in East New York were ablaze.
The trucks were parked at five places: Essex Street and Stanley Avenue; Shepherd Street and Stanley Avenue; Linwood Street and Wortman Avenue; Linwood Street and Stanley Avenue and Chestnut Street and Atlantic Avenue.
Investigators are reviewing security footage.
One law-enforcement source said the fires were “definitely arson” — but that investigators believed it could have been just an act of neighborhood horseplay.
But once fire marshals and detectives from the NYPD’s Arson and Explosion squads surveyed the scene, a second source said the investigation will include whether there is some kind of “internal beef” at the companies involved.
TTS Trucking head Brian Davis did not return calls seeking comment.
His LinkedIn profile shows he has been running the driver-recruitment company for 10 years. The Web page also showed Davis also opened a competing company called Chabry Transfer, in 2014. He lists himself as president of both.
