As a hotel security guard, 30-year-old Mariano Barbosa Jr. was tasked with keeping hotel visitors safe. We assume he was also asked to help make his workplace a pleasant, non-scary place to be, so that patrons would return. But apparently Barbosa didn’t want to do those things, so he allegedly set eight fires at the SoHo Grand (where he used to work) and the Yotel (his current employer) over the last four years “to drive business away and produce a less active work environment for himself,” The Wall Street Journal reports.
While that makes Barbosa sound really irresponsible and probably crazy, CBS New York’s account of the crime spree suggests he was also pretty dangerous: “He allegedly set the fires in hallways, stairwells and exit doors, so as to prevent occupants from escaping and keep firefighters out.” Luckily, the blazes “were all brought under control quickly” by the FDNY, which finally noticed the trend and had Barbosa arrested today. Anyone looking to spend a night in midtown should know that the Yotel is no longer more flammable than anywhere else.