A man accused of turning the gas on in an East Haven residence Saturday and threatening to turn the house into a bomb has been arrested.
Police said officers responded to a home on Lenox Street at 2:10 p.m. Saturday after someone called authorities and said she was babysitting at her sister’s house, left briefly and returned to find the odor of natural gas filling the house.
The caller said another person in the home told her he was in the shower when 43-year-old Michael Nettis went into the house and turned on the gas without lighting the stove, allowing gas to fill the home, according to police.
When the witness smelled gas, he got out of the shower, turned off the gas and opened the window to allow for ventilation, according to police.
Around the same time, Nettis sent threatening text messages to his wife. They included pictures of the gas knobs turned up and an explanation of what he did, police said.
One message in a string of them said, “I’m going to turn house into a bomb” “Think I’m kidding” and “Everything is over as of today,” according to police.
The East Haven Fire Department responded to ventilate the residence and check the gas levels within the house.
Local
Police apprehended Nettis a short time later in Thomaston and he was charged with attempted arson in the first degree, threatening in the first degree, reckless endangerment in the first degree and breach of peace in the second degree.
He was held on $300,000 bond.
