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Police say thief unable to escape burning van Randy Nestor had record of burning stolen cars Wednesday, March 04, 1998 By John M.R. Bull, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Randy Nestor stole and set fire to his first car at age 18.
He stole and torched his last one Sunday, a decade later.
Nestor, 28, died after he stole a van, then set it on fire while he was still driving it.
In releasing Nestor's identity yesterday, police said he routinely set fire to the cars he stole.
Nestor, they said, would then escape as flames shot out the cars' windows as they rolled to a halt.
It was Nestor's trademark, his calling card.
But on Sunday, something went wrong.
This time, Nestor couldn't escape. A broken door handle would prevent that.
Police said Nestor's brother, Russell, and an unidentified man ran to help, but they, too, couldn't open the door.
"Witnesses said they could see the flames," said Sgt. Paul Marraway, of the city's homicide squad. "Efforts by others to get him out failed."
Nestor, of Lawrenceville, was quickly overcome by his own fire.
Police Cmdr. Dom Costa, who arrested Nestor after he set a stolen car on fire in 1988, said Nestor had done the same to a "ton" of other cars.
"He once told me it was better for the people to just burn it up so they could get a new one from the insurance company," Costa said yesterday.
The stolen van was owned by a local band, Switch, which performed Saturday night at the Oregon Bar & Grill.
After speaking with others who had been with Nestor that night, police say they now know how he spent the last few hours of his life.
They know, for example, that Nestor, his brother and a friend were in the Oregon Bar & Grill when they saw the band members load their gear into the van and come back inside.
The police also know the men didn't see the van's keys had been left on the floor, because they hot-wired the vehicle and took off.
It was around 2 that morning, and police say someone other than Randy Nestor drove the van from the bar's parking lot.
They later emptied the van of the musical equipment and valuables.
And that, say police, is when Nestor decided to leave his calling card.
Someone drove the van onto Gold Way, an alley in North Oakland near the Bloomfield Bridge.
Nestor got in and set the rear interior of the van on fire as it rolled down the street.
But no one had told him the door handle was broken and that it couldn't be opened from the inside.
With flames raging in the back seat, the other men rushed to help, but they couldn't reach Nestor because the door was locked.
Nestor tried to escape through the back of the van, but he was overcome by the smoke and was burned beyond recognition.
Nestor couldn't make his way to the passenger's side of the van and, from the driver's seat, the only way he could have escaped was to unlock the door, roll down the window and open it by reaching for the handle outside, police said.
The coroner's office has ruled the cause of death to be smoke inhalation.
Police have recovered the stolen items, Marraway said.
Costa, who was an arson investigator in the late 1980s, remembered Nestor as a young man who had stolen cars in Lawrenceville, then set some of them on fire.
According to court records, Costa arrested Nestor on March 2, 1988, for stealing a car, stripping it of valuables, pouring gasoline in the back, setting it on fire and jumping out as it rolled.
Court records show that Nestor told Costa to let him go or "you'll see what burns."
As the case made its way through the court system, Nestor was again arrested by Costa.
He was charged with stealing a car Sept. 3, 1988, setting it on fire and jumping out as the car rolled down the street.
Those two cases netted Nestor a five-year prison term.
In 1994, Nestor was charged with drunken driving. In 1995, he was arrested for drug possession. In 1996, it was drunken driven and hitting a parked vehicle.
Almost all Nestor's problems with the law involved cars.
"It's ironic," said Costa. "Almost 10 years to the day and he was still up to his old tricks.
"It looks like he never learned."
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