Nobody likes to get stood up — especially when you’re the alleged “side chick.”
That’s the lesson cops learned in Woodbury, New Jersey, last week — when a 29-year-old woman set fire to a man’s house after he invited her over for some late-night sex and then fell asleep, leaving her stranded outside.
“You wasted my money to come out here,” Taija Russell allegedly seethed in a text message. “I see you wanna die.”
Russell, a resident of Gloucester Township, is charged with attempted homicide, aggravated arson, aggravated assault, endangering/creating substantial risk of death and criminal mischief for the alleged torching last week.
Cops in Woodbury City sent out a press release over the weekend, explaining how they arrested her on Tuesday after recovering the text messages she sent to her alleged hookup buddy.
The victim, whose identity is being withheld, told authorities he woke up to find his home engulfed in flames and eight missed calls from Russell, along with the texts. The man was “covered head to toe in soot and ash” when cops came into contact with him, according to the Cherry Hill Courier-Post.
He reportedly ran two-tenths of a mile from his house to the police station, wearing only a T-shirt. Cops took him to a hospital, where he was treated for smoke inhalation and burns.
The man’s residence and its contents “were completely destroyed” when authorities arrived. He told investigators that Russell was a “side chick” with whom he had been having a sexual relationship, according to the Courier-Post, which cites the probable cause statement.
Surveillance video captured outside the man’s house shows Russell outside “just prior to the fire,” the statement says. She was still being held Sunday by police.