A homeowner realized how close her family was to danger after watching back footage on the porch security camera.
The woman, identified only as Sandi, got an alert on her doorbell camera around 2:30 a.m. but didn’t check it, according to Fox 40.
She thought insects flying in front of the camera had triggered the alert, which is a common occurrence.
Sandi watched the footage about two hours later and immediately went into panic mode.
It showed her neighbor, 38-year-old Cuong Pham, dousing her porch with diesel fuel and attempting to light it on fire.
Two other adults and two children, ages three and 10, were sleeping inside at the time. Sandi said she was unsure how to react:
“OK, are we going to blow up at any minute? Do I go get the kids, do we take off or is he outside waiting for us?”
The family contacted police, who arrested Pham outside his home around 7 a.m. Authorities told Sandi the situation would have been worse had he used gasoline.
She told CBS 13:
“They said had it had been gasoline, he would’ve blown up as well as we all wouldn’t be here today. We all would’ve been dead.”
Sandi said Pham is a drug addict and may have mental health problems. Her neighbor, Scott, said he’s known in the neighborhood.
He explained:
“He does this around the neighborhood, rings our doorbells, or asks us to borrow money.”
Pham later told police that he saw a ghost at the family’s home and wanted to get rid of it. Sandi is unsure why exactly he targeted her family’s home.
She told CBS 13:
“I’ve just never had any problems or any issues, I just don’t understand why. Why were we targeted?… This is our home, this is where we live, we are just going to have to make the best of it and put it in God’s hands and hope for the best.”
Pham has been charged with arson, two counts of child endangerment, and five counts of attempted murder.