Two people descended on an immigration and naturalization services company Monday morning shortly after midnight with the apparent intention of burning it down.
The two would-be arsonists were caught on camera pouring gas around the business, Servicio de Imigración in Bakersfield, California.
They apparently forgot that when you play with fire, you get burned.
Sometimes literally.
The two arsonists, whose motives in this are not immediately apparent, seem to have failed to take sufficient precautions in preparing to burn the house down.
The individuals are seen on camera pouring gasoline on the side of the business, according to KBAK.
One of them stoops over to light the fire, apparently unaware of the fact that he or she was in the middle of the danger zone.
The inevitable happened.
WARNING: The following video contains graphic images that some viewers may find disturbing.
The suspects caught on fire and fled the scene.
This isn’t the first time something so bizarre has happened with would-be arsonists. In 2020, The Western Journal reported on a woman who triggered an explosion while trying to burn a car. She wound up in police custody for her efforts.
It’s difficult to imagine there was too much planning involved in the attack on Servicio de Imigración, although another criminal seemed to have thought things through a bit better.
The next morning, the business was robbed.
According to KBAK, Servicio de Imigración was robbed Tuesday morning, and the business’ owner wasn’t alerted because his cameras were damaged in the fire from the previous day.
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According to security footage from another business, however, Servicio de Imigración was seemingly scoped out by an individual who didn’t enter the business about 20 minutes prior to the robbery.
The business owner, Max Solorzano, has had a bad week. As you might imagine, he’s incredibly upset.
“We are a small business and we help many people, so there will be people who will not be able to receive our services due to inactivity,” he said according to WITI.
“That is what most saddens me,” he said. “We help many farmworker families with their immigration processes, we help people do taxes. We ask our clients to have patience with us, we will get through this.”
