Firebomber Picked Targets to Settle Scores, N.Y.C. Police Say Over the last few years, the list of grudges grew, each emanating from a perceived slight. There was the time he was not allowed to use a bathroom. And the time he was apparently dissatisfied after buying crack cocaine. A more recent indignity came just after Christmas, when, he told police detectives, he was treated rudely and roughly after being caught shoplifting at a deli in Queens. On Sunday, the authorities said, the man decided to settle his scores. Police officials said the man, who was taken into custody on Tuesday morning and identified later as Ray Lazier Lengend, 40, of 89-04 215th Street in Queens, admitted to having committed five firebomb attacks in Queens and on Long Island in a two-hour swirl of violence on New Year's Day. He faces five counts of criminal possession of a weapon, one count of arson as a hate crime and four counts of arson. His first attack, he told investigators, was his revenge against the deli, whose proprietors had ejected him for shoplifting milk and a Starbucks Frappuccino on Dec. 27. From there, officials say, his reasons varied: He targeted the wrong house on a street in Queens where he said he once purchased crack cocaine. He took aim at an Islamic center off the Van Wyck Expressway, while 100 people were worshiping inside, over his treatment after asking to use its bathroom. He attacked a house in Elmont, just over the Nassau County border, over vague claims of a familial problem. His final attack was on a home on 170th Street in Queens that houses a small Hindu temple; he told detectives that a nemesis of his, from five or six years ago, was there. In four of the five attacks, Starbucks Frappuccino bottles were used to create Molotov cocktails, and remnants of those 9.5-ounce bottles were recovered by investigators from those locations. In fact, the police said the suspect, whose name was not released, was caught on videotape at 5:56 p.m. Sunday, about two hours before the first attack, at a gas station, filling up five of those bottles. When Mr. Lengend was taken into custody on Tuesday morning, there were three more empty Frappuccino bottles in the back seat of his Avis rental car, stolen from Kennedy International Airport at 3 a.m. Friday, the police said. "The suspect has made statements implicating himself in each of the five firebombings, indicating a personal grievance in each," said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department's chief spokesman. Officials believe that the suspect was also motivated by hate. In interviews with detectives, he made broad, anti-Muslim statements and said he initially planned to use the five Starbucks bottles against the Islamic center, but did not carry out his plan when he saw a police presence there, according to one law enforcement official. No one was injured in the attacks, which resulted in varying degrees of property damage. The crucial clue in identifying the suspect was his car; witnesses described a suspect in a sedan with Virginia license plates, and video showed a similar vehicle. Detectives Charles LoPresti and Richard Johnson of the 103rd Precinct canvassed much of the Jamaica, Queens, neighborhood - the attacks occurred within two miles of one another - and spotted a gray, four-door Buick Regal with Virginia plates, parked legally on Monday night. They watched the car until 7:50 a.m., when the suspect emerged and was placed in custody. "They were observant and persistent, literally through the dark of the night," said Mr. Browne, who said the suspect lived nearby and was an unemployed truck driver. By Tuesday evening, the suspect had claimed responsibility for three other firebombings, against homes in Queens on Dec. 26 and this week, Mr. Browne said, adding that the police were investigating the claims. As in the other instances, the suspect claimed "he has some kind of grievance with the people living there," Mr. Browne said. Detectives are trying to find out what set him off on a rampage against so many locations. Officials said the suspect had several previous arrests, on charges including drug possession, grand larceny and possession of bad checks. His most recent was in Queens in November 2009, the police said. In the first attack, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the deli owner had told investigators about an episode on Dec. 27 in which he or his employees ejected a man who was trying to shoplift. As workers pushed the man out of the store, Mr. Kelly said, "He said words to the effect of, "We're going to get even. Salah Salim, 32, who owns the store on Hillside Avenue, said an employee saw the man stealing the milk and the Frappuccino, so Mr. Salim confronted him. "At first, he gives me the milk back," recalled Mr. Salim, who was reached by phone. "He said, "I'm sorry, I have nothing else." And then my employee said, "There's one more." " Mr. Salim said he grabbed the man by his jacket collar and the man removed the bottle of Frappuccino from his pocket. The men argued, Mr. Salim said, though he was unsure what the man said. "I'm not sure what kinds of words, but they were bad words," he said. Joseph Goldstein and Tim Stelloh contributed reporting.