Amanda Bynes has been placed under involuntary psychiatric hold and is scheduled to undergo an evaluation of her mental health after allegedly starting a fire in the driveway of a totally random elderly woman’s home in Southern California.
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Captain Don Aguilar, deputies responded to a call at the witching hour of 8:45pm on Monday night describing Bynes, 27, standing next to a “very small” pyre in the driveway of an unaffiliated family home in her hometown of Thousand Oaks.
One witness claims he saw Bynes lying on her back, pants on fire, in the drive next to a “little red tank” of gasoline, atop which lay a small piece of cloth; another claims her dog was with her at the time and may have been burned prior to her trying to abscond in a cab.
Upon arriving at the scene, deputies determined based on her responses to an interview that Bynes met the criteria for a 5150 psychiatric hold and took her into custody. For those of you playing at home, you may remember the 5150 hold enacted during the pre-conservator halcyon days of one Britney Spears. The Hollywood Reporter notes that a 5150 is a section of the California Welfare and Institutions Code that places a person under 72-hour watch “after they make statements that they’re either a danger to themselves or others, or gravely disabled.”
No charges of arson have been filed due to there being no evidence of malicious intent.
Earlier this month, Bynes appeared in a Manhattan court to face charges she threw a bong-shaped vase out the window of her 36th story apartment.
As of last weekend, the official stance on Drake is that he’s still [arguably] gorgeous.
drake is gorgeous
— amanda bynes (@amandabynes) July 19, 2013
Photo: Neilson Barnard via Getty
