VIRGINIA BEACH — A U.S. Navy sailor is under investigation after a fire was intentionally set to a locker of urine samples hours after a random drug test occurred on Naval Air Station Oceana, court documents show.
The fire happened on May 1 around 8:45 p.m. in the Fleet Readiness Center MIDLANT building. It was contained specifically to a metal locker that housed urine samples and records, according to documents filed in Virginia Beach Circuit Court.
The urine samples, records and items around the locker were damaged in the fire.
Court documents show that the base had conducted a “wide” urinalysis sweep earlier that day. Those sweeps are used by branches of the military to determine if members have been using illegal drugs.
An investigation of the fire showed it was set intentionally and gasoline had been used as an accelerant.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service began investigating a particular sailor after the fire was set. In a search warrant that was filed in August, NCIS got the sailor’s phone records to determine his whereabouts from April 1 to July 17.
Their investigation into that sailor also showed that he’d bought $5 in gasoline from a Norfolk 7-Eleven about four hours before the fire began. NCIS also discovered that his car was seen coming into the main gate of the base around 7:30 p.m. and leaving it about 10 minutes after fire alarms sounded, court documents state.
The sailor who is under investigation is assigned to the work space where the urine samples were housed and had access to the room after it was locked. A witness, who was the last person to leave the building, said that he locked it at 5:30 p.m., according to court documents.
Another witness told NCIS that the sailor who is being investigated returned to the building around 7 p.m. because he’d forgotten something there.
The sailor was also scheduled to go on vacation from May 1 until May 5. After the urine test was announced, he added an extra day to his leave.
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