Sometimes the punishment for attempting a crime happens a lot faster than suspects believe, perhaps even during the act itself. And as they say, when you’re playing with fire you’re gonna get burned. Or rather, if you’re dealing with highly flammable gasoline, you could also get burned if you’re illegally siphoning, as one Arizona man discovered.

Police in Mesa, Ariz. say a suspect had hooked up a homemade electric gas siphon to pilfer fuel from a truck sitting in a driveway. But as so often happens when trying to MacGyver your way through things, something went awry. And that something was likely a spark from the siphoning device, which caught the man’s clothes on fire, reports AZFamily.com.

Even in the midst of his attempted thievery, the suspect remembered his grade school lessons and ran into the street, dropped and rolled around in an attempt to extinguish the flames.

When he managed that, or thought he had, he climbed into his truck to get away from the scene of the crime. But in his haste to escape, he failed to notice that he was still on fire. Flames spread from his clothing to the inside of his now moving vehicle. He jumped out while the truck kept rolling, right into a home a few doors down from the theft.

Fortunately he was the only one injured, and after he’s all done recovering in the hospital, he’ll be arrested — although we can’t imagine that will hurt as much as being on fire did.

Cameras capture gas thief’s wild ride [AZFamily.com]

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