"The idiots from TikTok set my jeep on fire. You will answer for this." That is the voice on a clip circulating on social media since Sunday: a light-coloured SUV with its front end entirely in flames, and a man filming and accusing. Users are linking it to the fire on Finska Street in Skopje. There is no official confirmation that it is the same incident, no evidence the vehicle was deliberately set alight, and no identity for the person filming.

What has been confirmed comes from the Interior Ministry. On 20 September at 06:05 a Chevrolet Captiva with Kumanovo plates, owned by a 40-year-old from Kumanovo, burned on Finska Street. The fire spread to a parked Volkswagen Golf 4. Three hours earlier, at 03:05, a Mercedes belonging to a 54-year-old from Skopje burned on John Kennedy Street. And the day before that, at 04:30, a Toyota owned by a company and a Hyundai burned in Karposh. Five cars in a little over a day. No injuries. No explanation either.

For every case, the ministry produces the same sentence: "measures are being taken to fully clarify the case". Not a word on the cause, not a word on whether any of the fires was set deliberately, not a word on whether the three incidents have anything in common beyond the city and the small hours. The bulletin gives the make, the plates and the owner's initials. The citizen who parks on the street learns everything except the one thing he needs: whether somebody is burning cars in his city.

If the clip is genuine, somebody filmed their own jeep burning and knows - or at least claims to know - who lit it. If the police have that clip, they have a place to start. If they are not looking for it, why not? Five torched vehicles in a little over a day are either three pieces of bad luck or a pattern. Which of the two it is should come from the Interior Ministry, not from TikTok.