The concepts of ‘children’s parties’ and ‘hardcore crime’ usually only meet in the fictitious representation of murderous clowns, but an absolutely wild arson case in Melbourne shows the shady underside of the bouncy castle industry.
Seriously.
Awesome Party Hire owner Chris Balcombe is facing charges relating to the alleged firebombing of competing businesses, which racked up millions of dollar’s worth of damage.
Police claim Balcombe offered one of his drivers, Peter Smith, a cool $2,000 to hurl molotov cocktails at other players in the Melbourne party hire business.
Between December last year and the middle of February, five competitors suffered fire damages. One fire, at A&A Jumping Castles, destroyed over a million dollar’s worth of buildings and equipment.
50 firefighters were required to bring that blaze under control.
Police also claim that Balcombe arranged for his own business to be lit up, to dodge suspicions that Awesome Party Hire was behind the blazes. That fire did a number on Awesome Party Hire’s shed.
Balcombe and another alleged accomplice, Travis Ransom, will face ten and four counts of arson, respectively. Neither have entered a plea, and they’ve been bailed to appear in court in February.
Source: The Age.
Photo: Master Of None / Netflix.