Man ‘sets fire to pizza restaurant using feces after he was refused free food’
A man allegedly started a fire at a Domino's pizza restaurant with bags and boxes containing feces.
A man allegedly set a Domino’s pizza restaurant on fire using feces as fuel after workers refused to give him free food.
George Cook, 59, ignited a blaze in the back of the shop in Westminster, Maryland, around 6.30am on Saturday, according to the Office of the State Fire Marshal. He is accused of starting the fire with bags and boxes containing feces.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze within minutes and called the Office of the State Fire Marshal to investigate the incident.
Cook had visited the eatery on the 400 block of Baltimore Boulevard earlier that week, the manager told Deputy State Fire Marshals. Cook allegedly asked employees for free food and got angry and kicked a trash can when he was told to leave, WMAR reported.
Witnesses said Cook had broken into vehicles at the Superior Car Care automobile repair shop on Manchester Avenue prior to trying to burn the Domino’s.
A trooper helping with the investigation spotted Cook getting inside a vehicle and detained him.
It turned out Cook had been arrested in recent weeks by Westminster police for allegedly starting small fires just as he was accused of at the pizza joint – by burning boxes or bags with feces.
Cook has been charged with first- and second-degree malicious burning, second-degree arson, malicious destruction of property over $1,000, and rogue, vagabond and theft under $100.
He is being held with no bond at Carroll County Detention Center.
It is not the only weird arrest in the US in recent years involving feces.
In November 2021, a lawyer was recorded on CCTV allegedly leaving a Pringles can with human feces in the car park of a crime victim advocacy center. The criminal defense attorney was suspended last November, but had his license reinstated in June after a court announced that he fulfilled his disciplinary conditions and did not commit further acts of misconduct.
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