Realty Firm Owner Charged With Truck Arson In Wall: Prosecutor

FREEHOLD, NJ – A Toms River man has been arrested and charged with setting fire to a group of six commercial vehicles in September, belonging to a business in Wall, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago said Thursday.

Harcourt “Paul” S. Ward, 69, of Ward Realty and Insurance in Point Pleasant, has been charged with four counts of second-degree arson in connection with the fire that destroyed the six trucks, the prosecutor's office said.

Authorities did not identify the business whose trucks were set on fire.

The prosecutor's office gave this account of the fire:

On Sept. 26, at approximately 10:11 p.m., the Wall Township Police Department received a call for a fire at the 1900 block of Atlantic Avenue.

Upon arrival, members of the Wall Township Police Department and Monmouth County Fire Marshal’s Office found six vehicles on fire.

An investigation showed that Ward, of Ward Realty and Insurance in Point Pleasant, was the
"person responsible for purposely setting the vehicles ablaze," the prosecutor's office said in a news statement.

The estimated value of the damage caused by the fire was over $1 million.

Anyone with information regarding this case is urged to contact Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office Det. Joshua Rios at 800-533-7443 or Wall Township Police Detective Zach Honecker at 732-449-4500.

The case is assigned to Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Caitlin J. Sidley, of the
Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Bureau.

Information about legal representation for Ward was not immediately available.