Nancy Suzanne Duarte walked up to the American Power Yoga studio on Saturday evening with a baseball bat in one hand and a can of gasoline in the other. She then allegedly set fire to the studio as a way of venting her anger.
When she was arrested and booked for allegedly setting the fire, Duarte smiled brightly for her mug shot because, she said:
“I thought it was going to make me happy… to burn the place that had brought me so much pain and suffering.”
Ms. Duarte says that for years one the former proprietors of American Power Yoga in Dallas, Texas, sexually harassed her and touched her in improper ways:
“He kept hitting on me and kept trying to make me the girlfriend on the side.?Even as I’m walking out the door, he kept trying to put his hands on me, and I was like, ‘No!'”
So, Duarte adds, she decided she had no choice but to assume the title of firebug and torch the studio in order to achieve catharsis. Or as she so eloquently stated when asked:
“Just to set it on fire, just destroy it, get rid of the devil’s temple.”
Duarte says she had no intention of harming anyone and set the blaze late at night when no people were around. No one was injured by the fire, which did only minimal damage to the yoga studio, but authorities say the blaze could have spread and consumed the entire shopping center.
As of Thursday, Ms. Duarte was still being held on a $16,000 bond. She says if she’s released from custody she will not attempt to set the yoga studio afire again.
Word of warning to anyone who might be thinking of doing some sort of wrong to Nancy Suzanne Duarte: This lady doesn’t just get mad, she gets even!
