{"id":201962,"date":"2026-04-18T20:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T20:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/201962\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T20:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T20:54:09","slug":"woman-who-claimed-burglar-threw-molotov-cocktail-into-her-nyc-apartment-is-charged-with-arson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/201962\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman who claimed burglar threw Molotov cocktail into her NYC apartment is charged with arson"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 30-year-old woman who claimed a burglar armed with a Molotov cocktail<\/a> started a fire in her swanky Tribeca home set the fire herself \u2014 and is now facing arson charges, police said Saturday.<\/p>\n

Aila Balic\u2019s claims that someone threw an explosive into her third-floor apartment on Murray St. \u2014 just a half block from City Hall \u2014 causing a small fire in the bathroom, sparked a massive response by both police and firefighters<\/a> at 8:15 a.m. Friday, cops said.<\/p>\n

The fire was put out in a few moments, but cops didn\u2019t find any Molotov cocktails. The closest thing they could find was a bottle of mouthwash with a rag on top of it, a police source with knowledge of the case said.<\/p>\n

No injuries were reported.<\/p>\n

Nearly 80 firefighters, emergency medical technicians and paramedics responded to the scene, FDNY officials said.<\/p>\n

\"Officials<\/p>\n

Officials investigate a fire on Murray St. Friday, April 17, 2026 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News\/)<\/p>\n

\"Officials<\/p>\n

Officials investigate a fire on Murray St. Friday, April 17, 2026 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News\/)<\/p>\n

\"Officials<\/p>\n

Officials investigate a fire on Murray St. Friday, April 17, 2026 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News\/)<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 3<\/p>\n

Officials investigate a fire on Murray St. Friday, April 17, 2026 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News\/)<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

Investigators later learned that Balic, who suffered a minor injury and was taken to an area hospital for an evaluation, had started the fire and charged her with second-degree arson and reckless endangerment.<\/p>\n

She may have been in the middle of an emotional crisis when she sparked the blaze and called 911, police sources said.<\/p>\n

Balic was released on $5,000 bail after a brief arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court Friday, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

Stacey Richman, a high-profile hip-hop attorney<\/a> whose client list includes Jay-Z, Lil Wayne and Ja Rule, represented Balic at her arraignment. A call to Richman for comment Saturday was not immediately returned.<\/p>\n

Estimated rents in Balic\u2019s high-end luxury building are about $6,000 a month<\/a>, according to Zillow. Sales of units in the building average around $2.8 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 30-year-old woman who claimed a burglar armed with a Molotov cocktail started a fire in her swanky…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,56,63,261,65,64,265],"class_list":{"0":"post-201962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-city","9":"tag-county","10":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-new-york-county","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-nyc-crime","20":"tag-nyc-headlines","21":"tag-nyc-news","22":"tag-sub-county-region"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}