BATON ROUGE - Investigators arrested a man who reported his SUV stolen before it was set on fire in a BREC park parking lot. 

The Baton Rouge Fire Department investigated a vehicle fire that happened in a BREC parking lot on Greenwell Street early on the morning of Dec. 27. The vehicle was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived and was destroyed. 

Robert Cotton owned the vehicle and reported it stolen while he was out of town. 

Arrest documents showed security camera footage from the area showed a masked man in the parking lot looking at a similar SUV before finding Cotton's. The man got into Cotton's vehicle and drove away before the vehicle was later found burned. 

Investigators believe Cotton and the man had an agreement for the man to "steal" and burn his vehicle. 

Monday, Cotton was arrested for arson with intent to defraud.