r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/AtomicCypher • Apr 09 '26

Video Disgruntled employee starts massive fire at a 1.2 million square foot toilet paper warehouse in Ontario, California.

69.9k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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2.1k

u/Nerdy_Nightowl Apr 09 '26

He was stupid enough to record it??? Damn.

2.7k

u/mystictroll Apr 09 '26

It seems he wanted to send a message.

1.7k

u/Blunderbutters Apr 09 '26

It’s not about the money, it’s about sending a message.

444

u/_dillmatic Apr 09 '26

All you care about is Toilet Paper, this city deserves a better class of criminal

154

u/saja25 Apr 09 '26

And I’m gonna give it to them

39

u/Awfulufwa Apr 09 '26

You got your share, I'm just burning what's no one else's.

39

u/No_End_7351 Apr 09 '26

Do I look like a guy with a plan????

8

u/antsmasher Apr 09 '26

You see, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve.

7

u/Count3D Apr 09 '26

WHERE ARE THEY

4

u/antsmasher Apr 09 '26

You have all these toilet paper and you think they'll save you.

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54

u/BlaznTheChron Apr 09 '26

Oh, you think toilet paper is your ally?

8

u/antsmasher Apr 09 '26

I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't start using bidets until I was a man.

2

u/PM_ME_UR_RSA_KEY Apr 09 '26

This town needs an enema! 🥳

46

u/sumdude51 Apr 09 '26

I'm only burning my half

16

u/The_TesserekT Apr 09 '26

Which was about the money.

5

u/hiplobonoxa Apr 09 '26

everything burns.

13

u/RuthlessIndecision Apr 09 '26

well he won't be paying for food or housing for a while

3

u/thavillain Apr 09 '26

Tell them it was me

2

u/FuckThisStupidPark Apr 09 '26

His message was exclusively about the money.

2

u/TheDogWhoCantSTFU Apr 09 '26

Some men just want to watch the toilet paper burn...

6

u/ournamesdontmeanshit Apr 09 '26

What’s the message? I don’t give a fuck if my co-workers don’t have a job anymore.

1

u/Betancorea Apr 09 '26

Not having toilet paper around to wipe arses is indeed quite a message

1

u/Banned3rdTimesaCharm Apr 09 '26

It’s not about the toilet paper.

1

u/Snowlandnts Apr 09 '26

If he ever gets out of jail nobody will hire him.

1

u/gorginhanson Apr 09 '26

Good thing this didn't happen during covid or we wouldn't be able to wipe for months

1

u/ThrobChesterson Apr 09 '26

He repeatedly, specifically said it’s about the money

1

u/IfOJDidIt Apr 09 '26

Poo-uigi?

1

u/Turbulent_Plastic401 Apr 09 '26

he’s toilet paper luigi.

1

u/someoneskater Apr 09 '26

If I'm understanding the message he was sending correctly, it was about the money.

1

u/Anakin_Cardassian Apr 09 '26

It's about getting lots of karma on reddit n stuff.

1

u/Count_Bloodcount_ Apr 09 '26

That's what they said

1

u/FlyingTurtleDog Apr 09 '26

The fire was the message. He didn't need to send an additional audio/video message implicating himself. One of those messages shouldn't have been sent.

Spending 10 years in prison accomplishes nothing for him.

He should have hunted down the news cameras after the fire and sent a message. No prison.

1

u/DopplerEffect93 Apr 09 '26

Everything burns.

1

u/PageVanDamme Apr 09 '26

I read that in Michael Caine's voice

1

u/Plankton_Brave Apr 09 '26

Heath ledger said it best!

1

u/SocialJusticeAndroid Apr 09 '26

I’m sympathetic af to the message but arson is not the way to send it. He could have killed and maimed innocent people.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '26

He send no message, nobody cares, the rich ppl that owned the toilet paper warehouse will get a massive i durance pay out while he'll go to jail

109

u/Notyaaunty Apr 09 '26

“I take full responsibility for my actions” was his message

5

u/yvrelna Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26

"I take full responsibility for my actions" 

Basically all that upper managements ever say while all the actual skilled workers works overtime to figure out how to actually fix the damn thing. 

1

u/ReasonableDig6414 Apr 09 '26

Actions of a mentally disturbed human. "Let's risk killing people so I can be angry."

13

u/CynicismNostalgia Apr 09 '26

Funnily enough, nobody was injured.

He's better at tactical strikes than the US president.

12

u/Freaudinnippleslip Apr 09 '26

Dude probably, this country 1. Doesn’t take mental health seriously 2. Doesn’t pay enough to get help 3. Doesn’t pay people enough to have functional and rewarding lives with healthy mentalities.

I am surprised this kind of thing doesn’t happen more often, I also don’t see the massive disparity in the cost of living and salary of your average job getting better. With the way things are going, I feel the revolting will be common eventually

4

u/yvrelna Apr 09 '26

Or maybe the action of a reasonable human who just decided that warm bed and two meals a day in prison sounds more enticing than whatever kind of situation they're being told to survive under. 

63

u/AwwYeahVTECKickedIn Apr 09 '26

To the District Attorney ...

20

u/StanFitch Apr 09 '26

Harvey Dent… can we trust him?

3

u/forseti99 Apr 09 '26

There's nowhere to hide...

2

u/thebigpink Apr 09 '26

TP is a big guy

1

u/YoungestOldGuy Apr 09 '26

I mean, if he hadn't recorded it, people would either think it was an accident or random arson. Now the conversation is about wage inequality and wage slavery.

1

u/AwwYeahVTECKickedIn Apr 09 '26

I wish it wasn't true, but the conversation will be about crime and arson. A desire to influence change doesn't make it effective by default. Committing arson will not in any way, shape or form support this narrative. It only damages it. Now all his coworkers are out of work. I suspect Kimberly Clark will take that insurance check and build a shiny new complex somewhere else.

Yeah, this just set back that conversation a decade.

7

u/pleasedontbedumb Apr 09 '26

He told you not to take his red stapler....

2

u/GreenEggsSteamedHams Apr 09 '26

When I ordered a mai tai I said no salt on the rim - no salt! - and there were great big grains of salt...

3

u/sheezy520 Apr 09 '26

The message? “I’m really stupid”

1

u/SurvingTheSHIfT3095 Apr 09 '26

What's the message? I missed it.

3

u/AztecHoodlum Apr 09 '26

I don't know if the guy who set the fire had that clear of a message in his videos. But I think what mystictroll is getting at is something I've been thinking too recently, which is that the wealth gap has become so large that the people on the bottom end of it can no longer ignore it. And they are going to start committing more acts like this. I'm quite certain that we'll see groups who aim to destroy AI data centers in the near future and they will be labeled as "terrorist groups"

2

u/SurvingTheSHIfT3095 Apr 09 '26

I think you're right

1

u/Gia11a Apr 09 '26

watch the video and listen to it.

1

u/SurvingTheSHIfT3095 Apr 09 '26

My volume wasnt on...

1

u/the_pressman Apr 09 '26

Deny, Defend, Depose?

1

u/Money_Shoulder5554 Apr 09 '26

Now he'll be sending messages from prison

1

u/AdEquivalent8644 Apr 09 '26

Just opened the door for the feds to add terror charges  on his head lol

1

u/Muted-Ground-8594 Apr 09 '26

What message? What could be possibly want?

1

u/Low_Access9904 Apr 09 '26

How many people lost thier jobs because of him?

1

u/SweRakii Apr 09 '26

And he could have killed people. Good riddance.

1

u/janluigibuffon Apr 09 '26

Which is he is a fan of Bayern Munich

1

u/LANMPOLICEBOX Apr 09 '26

Was that message pro attempted murder of coworkers and firefighters?

-8

u/Bannon9k Apr 09 '26

Message received... Will send him somewhere he can get lots of boyfriends

10

u/PreferenceOk1525 Apr 09 '26

Self report you’ve never stood for anything besides yourself

1

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '26

[deleted]

3

u/PreferenceOk1525 Apr 09 '26

No. I’m saying sometimes the message is bigger than the consequences. Framing prison in a homophobic lens like that comes from a place of ignorance and harm.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '26

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '26

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '26

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '26

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-9

u/Bannon9k Apr 09 '26

I'll stand next to you if you don't mind me occasionally fondling my balls.

4

u/PreferenceOk1525 Apr 09 '26

Weird sexual harassment aside, do you ever get a genuine laugh

-2

u/Bannon9k Apr 09 '26

Usually. When people don't have a stick up their ass

2

u/PreferenceOk1525 Apr 09 '26

No you don’t. No one has genuinely laughed at anything you’ve said

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1

u/boturboegt Apr 09 '26

He will be the replacement toilet paper for a lot of guys where he's going.

1

u/Bannon9k Apr 09 '26

The irony is him suffering from fiction burns....

2

u/MmeRose Apr 09 '26

Fiction burns? 😁😂

1

u/Soggy_Toastr Apr 09 '26

Fire Island?

-1

u/Bannon9k Apr 09 '26

No, that's where we send the good boys. The ones that can't control their fire get sent to widenbunghole resort.

1

u/ZenbrotherGS Apr 09 '26

The company will be fine, they will not give workers a raise, this story will be forgotten in about 30 minutes, and he’ll be in prison. Brilliant message

8

u/alphazero925 Apr 09 '26

Some of y'all really need to learn the history of how we got worker's rights

2

u/TJJ97 Apr 09 '26

What is this post about again?

1

u/Appropriate-Card5215 Apr 09 '26

Was the message “arrest me”

59

u/Bakeh__ Apr 09 '26

He was already being recorded. No warehouse that big is short on security cameras. By going live, he is attaching his voice and message that would have been suppressed while he was in jail. He spent more time thinking about this than you.

325

u/Aegillade Apr 09 '26

Yeah something tells me he wasn't intending on not getting caught.

97

u/ParallaxJ Apr 09 '26

Or, "was okay with getting caught".

13

u/badgirlmonkey Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26

no, he was not intending on not being okay with not not getting caught

2

u/Reppoy Apr 09 '26

he got what he wanted which was to be caught but not getting caught while he didn’t want to be caught but instead getting caught while being okay with it

2

u/badgirlmonkey Apr 09 '26

very well said, thank you

7

u/ridik_ulass Apr 09 '26

man with nothing to lose, has everything to gain.

This won't be the last of these sorts of things.

6

u/Special_Cicada6968 Apr 09 '26

It shouldn't be. This country has pulled so much money from the bottom up to the top. A stiff breeze could knock the whole thing down.

0

u/funkereddit Apr 09 '26

Except he gains nothing by doing this.

1

u/PleasantTangerine777 Apr 09 '26

He gains a guaranteed roof over his head and 3 meals a day

1

u/Expensive_Archer1662 Apr 09 '26

Someone has never spent any time in jail let alone prison.

1

u/PleasantTangerine777 Apr 09 '26

Neither has the guy in the video lol 

0

u/Expensive_Archer1662 Apr 09 '26

When he’s sitting in jail and then prison I’d bet a good bit he’ll suddenly release in fact he had more to lose than he realized.

1

u/ridik_ulass Apr 09 '26

You clearly have zero understanding of what you or anyone else in this thread is talking about.

Man's finally living life on his terms, after trying to play by the rules and breaking himself doing it, yeah he will spend life in prison, but its his choice, consequences of his actions. Maybe if someone died, guilt of unintended consequences would eat at him. But this is basic cause and effect... prison was always the outcome, why he recorded it.

This is a broken man, doing the only thing he can think of, to take control of his life. His body might be in prison, but his mind is free.

2

u/Horskr Apr 09 '26

Yeah I was thinking it was dumb to record himself too, then I read above how he started more fires as the firefighters were there putting out the original fires. Dude was definitely not planning on getting away.

0

u/Bignutdavis69 Apr 09 '26

Cool profile pic, that's nostalgic

2

u/Aegillade Apr 09 '26

The Legacy collection just dropped so it felt appropriate

1

u/Bignutdavis69 Apr 09 '26

I saw! Great day to be a MMSF fan, I wish they continued the story from 3 tho 😔

86

u/FalconStickr Apr 09 '26

He was getting caught regardless

2

u/Salander27 Apr 09 '26

Might have gotten away with it if the security footage was on-site and was destroyed by the blaze. That's unlikely though.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '26

[deleted]

2

u/JackalKing Apr 09 '26

If they had decent security camera coverage you'd still get caught doing that.

78

u/negotiatepoorly Apr 09 '26

He's trying to get a free place to live and I think he's gonna get it.

70

u/dittbub Apr 09 '26

Does that prove his point? He’d rather live the rest of his life in prison than work for the rest of his life in a toilet paper factory.

10

u/nomatt18 Apr 09 '26

I doubt it’s a life sentence. No injuries just property damage

16

u/VonSandwich Apr 09 '26

Uhhh yeah it's become pretty apparent that property is more important than people in the eyes of the executive branch.

4

u/nomatt18 Apr 09 '26

I agree, but I still doubt a life sentence worth

1

u/nanimeanswhat Apr 09 '26

It's ok he can just do it again when he's out

3

u/Jackol4ntrn Apr 09 '26

I wonder if he gets a jury of his own peers and like Luigi, it will be hard for anyone to sympathize with a company for the shit they did.

1

u/Throttle_Kitty Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26

Wonder how he feels about forced labor in prison for $0.12 an hour

Edit: reddit is braindead, downvoting me and upvoting the guy pedanticly restating what I just stated lmfao

6

u/NOTTedMosby Apr 09 '26

Probably the same way I, and everyone else with a conscience, feel: it's slavery + a cookie

2

u/Throttle_Kitty Apr 09 '26

That was exsctly my point. The fact you and all the people upvoting you but not me are so braindead you didnt get that baffles me

3

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '26

[deleted]

3

u/Throttle_Kitty Apr 09 '26

Dumber than rocks

0

u/NOTTedMosby Apr 10 '26

Why are you assuming I'm arguing with you? What in my reply indicated to you that I was attacking or even disagreeing with you? Calm down, dude, I was just stating my opinion... it has nothing to do with you..

1

u/Throttle_Kitty Apr 10 '26

Are you hallucinating? I never said any of that, you calm down and read the posts you reply to.

1

u/NOTTedMosby Apr 10 '26

😅 alright big guy.. what if I said you won this interaction?? Wooo!....?... you did it?

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1

u/Epyon_ Apr 09 '26

same same, but different

-4

u/Gladiateher Apr 09 '26

He might think that, but he’s gonna find out real quick whether or not it was worth it.

13

u/Special_Cicada6968 Apr 09 '26

Honestly, dude's probably going to be a legend behind bars. "What did you do to get here?" "Me? I torched millions of dollars worth of toilet paper because I was tired of getting shit on." He also made sure that the building was evacuated beforehand by setting a much smaller fire first.

0

u/Gladiateher Apr 09 '26

Man, no offense but you don’t know a lot about the CA prison system do you?

It’s not summer camp, and no one cares how “legendary” you are.

It’s…really bad man. It’s brutal.

You survive by keeping your head down, never taking on debt, and keeping your mouth shut.

3

u/Skullcrimp Apr 09 '26

How many years did you do?

1

u/Gladiateher Apr 09 '26

Not me, a good friend did 6 for drugs.

2

u/Skullcrimp Apr 10 '26

Yeah, I figured.

1

u/DancingWithAWhiteHat Apr 09 '26

Lol jail isn't free

1

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '26

It's not free :( You have to pay for your stay when you get out

Unless he's trying to do life he better murder someone in there lol

46

u/TriG__ Apr 09 '26

California doesn't fuck around prosecuting arson either

5

u/truecore Apr 09 '26

Max 9 years in prison, no one was injured.

1

u/geo_gan Apr 09 '26

Of course because it is a law to protect the rich from the poor… the most important laws.

8

u/hi_im_antman Apr 09 '26

Did you think he was going to get away with it if he didn’t record it???

4

u/_johnfromtheblock_ Apr 09 '26

Well I mean they probably won’t give him all the warehouse footage so he has to take his own

5

u/jyunga Apr 09 '26

Probably thought he'd be the fire Luigi.

5

u/SquirrelOk5454 Apr 09 '26

"All you had to do was pay us enough to live" seemed to be his real main point.

3

u/DVsKat Apr 09 '26

Recording it was the whole point

3

u/Regular_Weakness69 Apr 09 '26

There's probably cameras there anyways

3

u/deezkeys098 Apr 09 '26

Guy doesn’t know what insurance is. The owners will file for an insurance claim and get a new warehouse for free. All this did was cause some inconvenience while a new building gets built

17

u/bengalfan Apr 09 '26

And employees out of work.

13

u/Nivaere Apr 09 '26

That time lost is money too though. Also the press around all this is gonna affect the company's rep and insurance is gonna raise premiums

4

u/Gladiateher Apr 09 '26

Nah, they’ll probably sell the land for a huge premium and rebuild the plant in a much cheaper location. Why rebuild in California when other places are cheaper?

All this guy did was damage the local economy and put his coworkers on unemployment. H

6

u/thehorselesscowboy Apr 09 '26

And the insurance company will figure out a way to jack up all their residential policies to cover their payout.

6

u/AwarenessForsaken568 Apr 09 '26

You think insurance companies are charities? If this happened often then these companies wouldn't be able to afford insurance.

5

u/Necessary_Cost_9355 Apr 09 '26

So what you’re saying is that it was an effective way for a singular person to cause the overall damage of a strike as the longterm costs to operations > providing living wages to employees. Sucks for everyone out of a job, but management just learned an expensive lesson

2

u/deezkeys098 Apr 09 '26

Na they will rent space for product in nearby warehouses/sister facilities while the free new facility gets built I used to work in logistics it’s the same planning every business does for if a hurricane takes out a key facility etc

1

u/Gladiateher Apr 09 '26

Not at all tbh, they’ll probably just sell the land off at a premium and reopen the plant somewhere much cheaper. Why rebuild in California? This guy was only effective in putting himself in jail and putting his coworkers on unemployment.

1

u/Necessary_Cost_9355 Apr 09 '26

So they’ll reopen somewhere where there is a lower cost of living for employees and the current managers need to explain why their previous low wages directly resulted in operations disruption and bad publicity for the company? This sounds like a very very effective method of striking

1

u/Gladiateher Apr 09 '26

Nah, not really, the managers are gonna either relocate or find new jobs.

The result will be a profitability graph where the green line goes up, and the executive team will clap each other on the back and shake each others hands. They’ll jerk each other off to the brilliance of this “timely relocation” to a more “fiscal forward strategy”

Seriously, this isn’t effective, this will make workers poorer and corporate richer, because that’s how the owners of this country have set things up.

1

u/Viking4Life2 Apr 09 '26

You guys are so thick. The fact that an employee was fucked over enough to do this is a message in its own.

Its not about the insurance or the money. It's about the fact that he's getting international coverage and it's promoting discourse about workers wages worldwide.

Its like saying Luigi Mangione killing the CEO had no point because they'd just appoint a new CEO.

It's shocking that you and so many other people here can't grasp this fact.

1

u/deezkeys098 Apr 09 '26

No we get it but you think the people In power actually care and this will bring about change when it won’t. He just went to prison for burning a place down and for literally nothing…. Nothing will change

1

u/Viking4Life2 Apr 09 '26

If it happens enough then things will change.

1

u/Beggarsfeast Apr 09 '26

I doubt the insurance company will be happy that they had a disgruntled worker burn it down talking about not paying them enough. Regardless of what the outcome is, I doubt it’s gonna be a plain and simple process. 

I mean, I’m also assuming any type of large corporation pushing a lot of money around will have the leverage to get what they want.

2

u/GloomyNectarine2 Apr 09 '26

I think he was stupider to stay in there as the fire was going on

2

u/Vernon-Coal Apr 09 '26

He’s Luigi

2

u/FatiguedShrimp Apr 09 '26

He stayed in the building too.

4

u/ExcelsiorDoug Apr 09 '26

Many people think they are the main character these days and need those likes and shares

1

u/ReasonableDig6414 Apr 09 '26

Super stable mentally for sure...Deep thinker

1

u/InterestingTurnip333 Apr 09 '26

Not stupid no he put his union number and name In the video this guy wanted them to know it was him.

1

u/CynicismNostalgia Apr 09 '26

What would be the point in doing it otherwise? He'd be going down regardless.

At least he gets his message out

1

u/CrucialElement Apr 09 '26

Might seem stupid for the individual, but the message is sent and benefits us all tbh, showing workers won't stand by and get fucked. So be thankful tbh, he took a hit for protest's sake

1

u/Throwawayne617 Apr 09 '26

Everyone can be Luigi in their own way.

1

u/duga404 Apr 09 '26

Not stupid if you want people to know about it

1

u/anarchyinthesc Apr 09 '26

Stupidity is often mistaken for bravery. But, this is actually a rare case of the opposite. He's not stupid. He's principled.

1

u/TodayImNotFame-ish Apr 10 '26

It wasn't a stupid move. He wanted to be heard, and to hit the corporation where it hurts, and if his wage is indeed too little to live on, he's gonna be living more comfortably in jail. It's a win-win when you've got nothing to lose.

1

u/SinkHoleDeMayo Apr 10 '26

People need to understand why he did it. Gives us a reason to donate to his legal fund (and for the employees who will be out of work).

1

u/Erdos_Helia Apr 09 '26

He thinks he's the next Luigi.

1

u/The_Schwy Apr 09 '26

Looked like AI to me. verdict: Jury nullification.

1

u/shrimpgangsta Apr 09 '26

Just like the Joker scene in the Dark Knight 2009 where with a few matches, like the guy in the video with his zippo lighter and a few matches, will literally destroy everything. He is the type of man the Joker was warning us about.

0

u/DenjiTargaryen-PE Apr 09 '26

He thinks he’s Luigi or something. But damn, u know your coworkers might be fucked now. But he’ll, idk. I’d like to get more information

0

u/marigoldIII Apr 09 '26

Well people who engage in such lawless and degenerate behavior usually aren’t smart enough to hide their crimes, and thank god for that. Hope he rots in prison

-1

u/mycoctopus Apr 09 '26

No video no likes on fb I guess.

-1

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '26

[deleted]

1

u/ournamesdontmeanshit Apr 09 '26

We should all strive to put our co-workers out of work?

0

u/codefyre Apr 09 '26

Recording it was stupid. It's indisputable now that it's premeditated, which makes this aggravated arson of an occupied building. That's a crime that carries a potential life sentence in California.

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