Slashdot Mirror
Woman Jailed For Starting Office Fire To Leave Work Early
A Florida woman was sentenced to nine months in jail, followed by five years of probation, for starting an office fire so she could get out of work early. From the article: "Pasco sheriff's investigators said Michelle Perrino, 40, started a fire at Bayonet Point Oxygen on May 12, 2009. Perrino drew suspicion when she mentioned the fire's origin — a filing cabinet — during an employee meeting. Employees had not been told where the fire started." I hope she had the good sense to start the fire on Friday so she could have a long weekend.
Well, studies HAVE shown that if you do this sort of thing on a Friday, there's less chance of an incident.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
If she hates her job that much, why doesn't she just quit?
And then set the place on fire?
Sadly starting a fire or tripping a breaker won't work very well for anyone in IT, they'd just be stuck at work over the weekend making sure everything was working (or in the case of a fire, building new servers with no time to sleep or rest).
Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
...pretty obvious even without her filing cabinet blunder. A fire starts, the breaker is tripped, and the phone system is disabled.
Are the managers there really stupid enough to shake their heads and say "well, when it rains it pours I guess"?
And also, how do filing cabinets spontaneously combust?
She sounds like she might just be Fire Marshal Bill's sister.
Work avoidance is a very serious problem, guys. Did you know that about 40% of sick days are taken on a Monday or a Friday?
That is the slashdot angle.
News for nerds? Stuff that matters? This is not front-page material.
They must have taken her stapler.
Sounds like a really fantastic idea.
Wait. So as if her action alone wasn't stupid enough, she started a fire at Bayonet Point Oxygen? An oxygen supply company? There's a reason they tell people on oxygen not to smoke.
No Milton tag?
Incidentally, CSS on Idle broken for 522 days and counting.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
mumble mumble lumberg took my red stapler mumble mumble last straw mumble mumble burn this place down
Possibility of Office Space references is always front page material.
But I think most people start fire so they can retire early, not just leave work early.
Reason for leaving: I fired my boss!
Cryonics - Keep cool and carry on.
I guess it's due to the Office Space reference.
There's always a back story. Did anyone ask her about the frequent moves she's had to endure? First on the Third Floor, then she got moved to the Second Floor, then to the lobby, then to the basement. And no one even mentioned the payroll issues she has been having. They stopped her paychecks for some reason. The last straw was probably the stapler incident...
Honestly, you should know better?
Monique, The Pyromaniac:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x3rzeDeOuk
Havoc Video
What insensitive people in my job if they start setting fires I have to leave late...
She was just burning the TPS reports
You burn the building down AFTER you get fired.
Just ask Milton or Dr. Steel
I think that job is union!
that is only good part about haveing to get up a 5am to do drywall at the new mcdonalds
You don't know why this story is news for nerds? Didn't you get that memo? I'm going to go ahead and send you a copy of the memo. OK? Great. Also, I'm going to need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday. Yeah. OK.
Isn't it ironic? While serving her jail time, she will be rewarded with free room and board.
Obi-Wan: "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were sudden
I think you have my stapler...
Maybe somebody asked for her red stapler, one too many times?
Hi, I Boris. Hear fix bear, yes?
Having lived on the Pinellas side of the Pinellas/Pasco county line, I have long advocated the use of a toll booth for people entering Pinellas from Pasco. Charge them a dollar to come to Pinellas and give them two when they leave. Now you see why.
"The ferrets, they're every where I tell you!"
I get that idle sometimes has just funny tech news, but where is the tech here ?
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
Like, who hasn't done this?
6.8SPC TR of 550, l xwind at 6, drift rt at 26" drops 77". AT has 503 ft-lbs at 1403 fps. FT 0.86
At least she started the fire in the "F" drawer of the filing cabinet...
"But this one goes to 11!"
What about telling people you feel a bit under the weather and going home?
I think she misread the memo. It was 'Casual Fridays' not 'Fire days'.
That doesn't surprise me that someone convicted of a crime is sociopathic and stupid.
Those that are sociopathic and smart become politicians, lawyers, and CEOs.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
I used to work in a building that also had the FEMA and they would get a "bomb threat" and we would evacuate the entire building and we would leave for the day so that police could investigate. After awhile we noticed these bomb threats would happen in afternoon of nice days and Fridays so we guest that someone didn't want to work that afternoon or wanted a long weekend so they would call a "bomb threat". After FEMA moved out of the building and the bomb threats stopped that we knew that someone at FEMA was doing this.
A classic Dilbert - April 17th, 1996.
Woman jailed for firing open office early in the morning in order to leave work early.
Woman Jailed For Starting Office Fire To Leave Work Early
Sorry to nitpick, but... Since people in jail work (what, you've never heard of a chain gang?), the headline can be parsed as "Woman, jailed for starting office fire, to leave work early" instead of the more plausible (and newsworthy) "Woman jailed, for starting office fire to leave work early".
Perhaps I'm just putting too much thought into idle, but I really have to wonder what combination of bleak life and missing bits of psyche lead this woman to actually set a fire to get a part day off. To be fair to her, apparently she really did need a mental health day (at least). It might not hurt her employer to review their policy on days off. It's apparently WAY too hard to get one.
I think it's fairly clear that whatever the problem is/was, jail and probation won't fix it (though it may well encourage less destructive day off stunts in the future).
I'd like to meet her. She sounds hot!
mandating a 6 week paid vacation for every employee is, in my opinion, going too far
Your opinion, in my opinion, sucks.
I only get 5 weeks paid vacation, but we are entitled to 1.5x salary during those vacations. However, I can trade up to get 7 weeks paid vacation by declining the vacation bonus pay (thus merely getting normal pay during vacations). I tend to do this almost every year. A trade of 2.5 weeks pre-tax pay for 2 weeks vacation is a winner, at least until the government starts confiscating a chunk of my vacation time as taxes.
7 weeks paid annual vacation is about right for work-life balance. That with 35 work hours per week is enough to get a 7-digit salary, if you keep the bullshit out of the workplace.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Starting a FIRE at a company called "Bayonet Point OXYGEN" doesn't sound very bright to me.