Imagine having such a nightmare shift that you decide to literally burn the company down, film it for the 'gram, and then act surprised when the police show up. That’s exactly what 29-year-old Chamel Abdulkarim allegedly did after turning a Kimberly-Clark warehouse into a $156 million bonfire.
The absolute madness kicked off around 12:30 a.m. in Ontario, California, where a massive 1.2 million-square-foot building—packed to the rafters with toilet paper and paper towels—went up in smoke. But this wasn’t some random electrical fault. A video posted to an account with Abdulkarim’s name shows a man casually strolling through the aisles with a lighter, torching pallets of inventory like he’s lighting birthday candles.
In the clip, which is equal parts terrifying and totally unhinged, the narrator can be heard fuming about his paycheck. "All you had to do was pay us enough to live," he repeats while the toilet paper packages behind him start to resemble a portal to hell. He even gets a bit poetic with his destruction, saying, "You may not pay us enough to fing live, but these bes dirt cheap," right before adding, "There goes your inventory."
The fire was so massive it turned into a six-alarm inferno, requiring over 140 firefighters from multiple agencies to keep it from taking out the entire zip code. Since the warehouse was basically a giant box of kindling, the building stood no chance.
While the fire was still raging, police caught up with Abdulkarim not far from the scene. It turns out he was one of the 20 employees working the night shift when the "suspicious" fire broke out. He’s now being held without bail at the West Valley Detention Center on two felony arson charges.
Note to self: If you’re unhappy with your salary, maybe just update your LinkedIn instead of committing a felony that could be seen from space. Talk about a "fire" exit strategy.
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