NATCHEZ — An apparent bitter ex-boyfriend is behind bars after allegedly torching his ex-girlfriend’s car and nearly catching her Eastwood Road house on fire early Tuesday morning.

Natchez Police Lt. Craig Godbold said Carl Ray Freeman, 28, 6 Longmire Road, was captured on a nearby game camera dressed in flame-retardant coveralls pouring a flammable liquid on Krista Cox’s car and lighting it on fire.

Cox said she woke up shortly before 3 a.m. to get a drink of water and heard a boom and saw a flash of light. She went to the front door and saw her car fully engulfed in flames and ran to get her 3-year-old son out of the house.

Cox and her son had been sleeping near the window by which her car was parked.

Cox said she was in a house fire six years ago from which a neighbor rescued her.

“I just stood there watching my car, and I could see in my head my house going up in flames again,” she said.

Freeman and Cox have not talked since early May, Cox said. Cox alleges Freeman has continually harassed her through text messages.

The fire totaled Cox’s car and damaged her mother’s car, which was parked in front of her car. The car was left at Cox’s house because Freeman had reportedly slashed the tires last week.

The fire also damaged Cox’s house and a neighbor’s house.

But the real damage, Cox said, was done to her family.

“My son is petrified to go home,” she said.

Freeman was charged with arson Wednesday and has no bond.