A tool shed atop the roof of a building in Chatan, Okinawa, was damaged by a fire, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023. (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes)

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa – A U.S. airman on Okinawa accused of stealing the equivalent of $8 from a vehicle in mid-January is also suspected of starting a tool shed fire the same night, a Japanese police spokesman said Tuesday.

Staff Sgt. Mason Laubach, 27, of Kadena Air Base, has been in Okinawa city police custody since his arrest at 7:54 a.m. Jan. 15, after a Chatan resident alleged Laubach took 1,000 yen from a vehicle, a spokesman for Okinawa prefectural police told Stars and Stripes by phone.

On Jan. 16, police forwarded a theft charge against Laubach to the Naha District Prosecutors Office, according to a spokeswoman there. She said police added an illegal entry charge on Monday that alleges Laubach had entered a two-story building a quarter-mile from the theft scene.

Prosecutors have yet to indict Laubach on any charge.

A tool shed atop the roof of a building in Chatan, Okinawa, was damaged by a fire, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023. (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes)

Laubach, still in jail, was also formally rearrested Monday on suspicion of illegal entry. Rearresting Laubach on a separate charge permits police to hold and interrogate him another 10 to 20 days.

Officers found items belonging to Laubach on the building’s roof, where a tool shed burned down that night, according to the city police spokesman. He said the fire is still under investigation.

The tools and drills inside the shed were a near total loss, a Nirai Fire Department spokesman said Wednesday.

Government spokespeople in Japan are routinely required to speak to the media only on condition of anonymity.

A Breathalyzer test on Jan. 15 measured Laubach’s blood-alcohol content at 0.12%, four times Japan’s legal driving limit of 0.03%, the city police spokesman said.

Roughly 30 minutes before police received the theft report, the Nirai Fire Department responded to a possible fire in the same area, the fire department spokesman said. He said a witness reported lots of smoke and someone fleeing the area. The fire was out by 7:14 a.m.