PLATTE CITY, MO (KCTV) -
A man died during a crime spree when he was playing with fire and things took a tragic turn, police said.
Police believe that after setting 11 vehicles on fire, he got stuck inside the twelfth.
The truck's owner told them the only way to open the truck's driver-side door from the inside was with a screwdriver.
As evidenced by Mike Holder's torched car, the passenger side would have been too hot to cross over.
"I'm not very happy that I've got to wind up with a new car, but I wouldn't wish that on anyone," Holder said.
Curtis Durbin, 20, died of smoke inhalation.
Police said they were familiar with him. Not as a firebug, but due to drugs and alcohol.
The car fires started being reported at 5:25 a.m. on Friday. Durbin was found at 7:04 a.m. He was living with his mom in the same neighborhood.
His mother said, hands shaking, that Curtis had completed two weeks of rehabilitation and had been at home for three weeks. She said he was suffering and now she is too, regardless of the circumstances, because she is still a mother who has lost her only son.
Holder has lost the car he uses to shuttle his kids, but can hardly imagine losing one of them over something like this.
"It is a sad thing. No matter what, I wouldn't think that anybody should lose their life over something like this," Holder said.
Curtis' mom says she is comforted by knowing her son is now in a place where he is no longer suffering.
She says he had signed up to go back into rehab but was on the waiting list because the place was full.
Police say results of a toxicology screen were not back yet, but a person who had been with him earlier that night told them Curtis was intoxicated.
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